


The dare

by yolofaber



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Akaashi is arrogant and Bokuto has to go out with him on a dare, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Kagehina as well as Yamatsuki are mentioned, M/M, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:42:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24520264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yolofaber/pseuds/yolofaber
Summary: “I dare you... “ Kuroo spoke slowly, enjoying every syllable on his tongue. “...to get with Akaashi.”“Seriously? Like, sleep with him?”“Nope, that’s too easy for you. Make him fall in love with you.”-To get Yukie back as their team manager, Bokuto agrees to the dare. But dating Akaashi turns out to be harder than expected, especially when Bokuto starts to realise, that there is a lot more to the setter than just his arrogance.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 62
Kudos: 251





	1. A wager

Akaashi didn’t care about a lot of things in his life. The thing he cared about most, was himself. 

He had realised early on in his life, that he was the center of the universe. Not in an arrogant way, really! He just came to realise, that like in any movie, there were main characters, sidekicks and a lot of these people that walked through the screen somewhere in the background once. He just happened to be the main character of his own life. It wasn’t like other people felt differently. Everyone sees themselves as the center of their universe, but not a lot of people are self aware enough to realise that. Akaashi was though. 

After he realised, that at least in his universe, everything revolved around him and other people were merely more than side characters, his life became a lot easier. He didn’t care about what other people thought of him, why should he?. And he liked his life that way, thank you very much.

\---

“Ok, it’s your turn Bokuto!” 

Kuroo pointed lazily at his best friend and roommate, who was sitting across the table. Together with a few other friends they had decided to start their weekend with a few beers over at their place. After a while they had decided to start playing truth or dare, a decision that not everyone seemed to be as excited about as Kuroo and Bokuto. Understandably, since those two were the ones asking for the most personal truths and most embarrassing dares. 

Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were the ones who fled first, right after the game started. They said something about Tsukishima's brother coming to visit tomorrow and needing to sleep. Bokuto almost felt guilty. The last time they had played the game, he might have asked them a few in depth questions about their relationship and sex life. Tsukishima had still not completely forgiven him. 

Kageyama and Hinata were the next to leave and with Hinata gone, Kenma decided it was time to go to sleep, retreating to Kuroo's bedroom. 

That left Kuroo and Bokuto only with Yukie, Bokuto's old team manager. Bokuto had known her for nearly all of his life. They grew up in the same neighbourhood, went to the same schools and were eventually part of the same team. Yukie knew exactly how shameless Bukoto could play truth or dare, but she was in no way better than him.  
After two hours and with only the three of them left, the game was beginning to get out of hand, but it was too fun for them to care. Yukie was just done completing the dare of telling her mother she’d gotten pregnant and Bokuto had just gotten Kuroo’s phone to text whoever he wanted for 5 minutes. Now it was Bokuto's turn to choose truth or dare. After two rounds of truth, he decided to follow his friends' leads and chose dare as well.

“Ok let’s see…” Kuroo’s smile was dangerous, as he exchanged a glance with Yukie, who seemed to know what he had in mind.

“I dare you... “ the black haired man spoke slowly, enjoying every syllable on his tongue. “...to get with Akaashi.”

“Seriously? Like, sleep with him?”

“Nope, that’s too easy for you.” Kuroo grinned. “Make him fall in love with you.” 

“Ok, I would have never thought this day would come, but you are definitely too drunk for this game.” Bokuto shook his head and stood to start cleaning up. “This game is over.”

“What? Are you afraid of a challenge?” Yukie grinned slyly. “Never would I have thought you would bitch out of a dare.”

“I gotta say, I’m disappointed,” Kuroo agreed. 

They knew Bokuto and his ego way too well. He sat back down at the table. 

"So, I make Akaashi fall in love with me. Great. But what's in it for me? I'd have to invest way more time into this than just a few days. It's not like this is some quick prank call! This requires way more time and way more resources. I’m not a wuss, I just think this goes beyond the scope of truth or dare.”  
His friends grinned. They knew they had him, they just needed to offer the right thing.

“Ok let’s see…” Kuroo furrowed his brows in thought. “I’m going to get you lunch everyday for a month.” 

“And I’ll cook you dinner,” Yukie added. 

It wasn’t a bad deal, Bokuto thought. He hated cooking, but by the looks of his friends earlier, he knew he could get just a little more out of them.

“That’s not enough.”

Kuroo groaned. “Lunch for 2 months? Damn, I’m going to be bankrupt afterwards, with your appetite.” 

“Hmm…I don’t think so.” 

“I’ll give you my TV?” Kuroo gestured to the TV in the living room. 

“That’s our TV! In case you forgot, we live together.” 

“Thought you might have forgotten…”

They all stayed silent for a while and just as Bokuto thought they were done with the dare and wanted to get up again, Yukie raised her voice:

“I’ll be your manager again.” 

Bokuto stared at her in disbelief. That was a good offer, a great one actually. Yukie had been their manager all through high school and it was her who had always helped the team through rough games, keeping the mood light and making each player perform to the best of their abilities. Even after high school she decided to be the manager for their university team. After their first year though, she announced that she would resign to focus more on her studies and personal life. Bokuto and the other team members did their best to convince Yukie to stay on the team, but she refused.

Because she couldn't find a replacement, their university team was still without a manager a year later and Bokuto just couldn’t get used to playing without the calming presence of Yukie on the sidelines. It was huge for her to offer being the manager again, and by the looks of it, she knew Bokuto couldn’t refuse. 

“Ok, I’ll do it,” He answered after a few seconds. “For the team.”

“Sure, for the team,” Kuroo teased, but Bokuto knew how to shut him up. 

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to pass on the 2 months of lunch though.”

\--- 

The next morning, Bokuto woke up with a light headache. Slowly he stumbled into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. Yukie, who hadn’t bothered going home at such a late hour, was already awake as well. 

“Good morning, beautiful.”

“Morning…” Bukoto sniffed. “Did you make toast?”

“Yup. Want me to put a few slices in the toaster for you as well?”

Bokuto nodded and Yukie went to work again. 

“Say, Yukie, did you really mean it last night?”

“What do you mean?”

“Coming back to the team as a manager.” 

Yukie turned around from the counter and smiled at him. “Why yes, you know I’m always serious when it comes to truth or dare.” 

“Good.” Bukoto grinned. “Just wanted to make sure again, before I go on snogging Akaashi for nothing.” 

“You gotta make him fall for you, too.” The girl reminded him. “Just your sloppy tongue might not be enough for that.” 

He winked at her. “Oh, if only you knew the miracles my tongue can perform.”

Yukie laughed. “Gross!”

She got back to the toaster and soon, their breakfast was done. 

While they ate silently next to each other, Bokuto started thinking about the whole thing. He wasn’t sure yet how he could make Akaashi fall in love with him. Even though he had known this man for nearly 5 years and played on the same team as him for almost as long, he knew next to nothing about him personally.

He was a good setter. Not especially talented or ambitious, but he was smart and resourceful. He could turn a sloppy receive into a solid offense, knew which spiker would get the point and how to deceive the opponents defense, which was basically all a setter had to do. Ok, scrap that. He was a great setter. There was a good reason why he was already named vice-captain in his second year of high school.

Still, he was never really part of the team. He would usually try to get out of celebratory meals after games and never joined the team when they met up outside of training. 

He never seemed to be fully invested in volleyball either. He almost always wore the same neutral expression while playing, whether they were losing or winning. Still, he seemed to like it enough to continue playing in university. That was where he and Bokuto had met up again.

‘Maybe he had gotten a scholarship and needed to play volleyball to keep it,’ Bokuto wondered, but it didn't make sense. He had a scholarship himself and knew which people had gotten into the team with scholarships. If Akaashi were one of them, Bokuto would have known.

Akaashi was arrogant. At least that was what everyone said about him, and even though Bokuto always tried to stay friendly and neutral as the captain of the team, he couldn’t help but agree. There was something in Akaashi's eyes when he looked at you that would make you feel inferior. Something in his voice always seemed annoyed, so cold and bored, and the way he walked through the school corridors made it seem as though the school belonged to him. 

That hadn’t changed now that he was at university and it irritated Bokuto to no end that this setter who, to make it worse, was a year younger than him, could make him feel so inferior.

Bokuto sighed. He had no idea who Akaashi really was, so how could he make this guy fall in love with him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thank you goes to my beta reader @justaweaboonugget from tumblr!


	2. Dating strategies

Apart from himself, Akaashi cared for very few things. He could count them on one hand, really.

He cared about volleyball. Not enough to be an ambitious player like some people in his team, but he liked moving on the court, helping his team score a point and he especially liked winning.

\---

Bokuto had a very specific dating routine that he had carefully designed through trial and error. It was an efficient way of getting to know his crushes. Sure, it might sound heartless that he used the same first four dates on all of his crushes, but hey, it worked. None of his partners had ever complained and Bokuto always made sure they had fun during the dates. Though, of course, he never told them that these dates were routine for him. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t that stupid.

It always started with the coffee date. Asking some cute guy who he had only talked to twice to go and get coffee was innocent enough. It was a date for first impressions and afterwards, Bokuto usually knew if he wanted to get to know the guy better.

Next came the more or less ‘accidental’ meeting in some hallway, where Bokuto would smile a lot and give the guy a compliment. It wasn’t so much a date as it was merely to make sure the guy didn’t forget about Bokuto until he had waited the right amount of time to ask the guy out on a second date.

The second meeting, about two days later, wouldn’t be so accidental. Bokuto would wait for the guy after one of their classes and ask them out again.

The second date was more of a date than the one in the coffee shop. This time, Bokuto would surprise them with a picnic for lunch. There was a park near campus with a lake and the willow tree right next to said lake created a nice and private place. It was always a bit of a risky move, because some guys were freaked out by the romantic atmosphere when it was only the second meeting and the first official date. 

Still, Bokuto stuck with it. He knew the second date was a little much, but he could be a little much too at times. So in a way, the second date was a test to see if the guy could stand Bokuto and his sometimes overwhelming personality. 

The third date was going to the cinema and eating dinner afterwards. Contrary to his friends’ and sometimes his dates’ beliefs, he didn’t go to the cinema to make out. The most intimate thing he ever did was holding hands with the guy, and even that was reserved for when the time felt right. The third date was meant to find out more about the guy’s thought process and if his way of thinking was compatible with Bokuto’s. Discussing a movie over dinner turned out to be a good way to do that.

After the date, Bokuto would walk the guy home. Sometimes they would kiss, but that wasn’t the norm. The kiss was scheduled for the fourth date.

The fourth date was a not so spontaneous, spontaneous one. Bokuto would text the guy only a few hours before. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the guy already had other plans, but apart from that the spontaneous thing worked well. The guy didn’t have as much time to build up expectations, so Bokuto was always sure to surprise them. He would take them to the roof of the building Kenma lived at. The view there was amazing, romantic, perfect for the first kiss.

With that, the dating routine was over and the relationship began.

Contrary to popular belief, Bokuto wasn’t a fuckboy. He dated a lot of people, that was true, but he never cheated and he was always respectful, even when breaking up. 

The thing with Bokuto was that his romantic feelings were just as impulsive as his personality in general. He fell in love quickly, and when he was in love, he loved hard and would do anything to make his partner happy. Sadly though, these feelings never lasted for too long. Bokuto hated himself for it, but after a month or so, when the butterflies started going away, his love did as well. 

In his defense, it was not always Bokuto who broke things off.. Way too often, it was the other guy breaking up after realising that there was more to Bokuto than just his muscular body and his career as a successful volleyball player. They just didn’t want to deal with the rest of his personality.

\---

In Akaashi’s case, Bokuto figured he would start his dating routine as usual. After all, it was just a dare, so there was no reason for Bokuto to put more effort into it than he would for his usual crushes. The dating routine had always worked out just fine, so why shouldn’t it work for the setter as well?

“Hey, Akaashi?” Bokuto had to hurry to reach his teammate before he left. Akaashi was usually the last on the court and the first to leave.

“Yes?” Akaashi turned around and Bokuto immediately felt less like asking. How could such a pretty guy be so intimidating?”

“Uhm, I was wondering, well…” Akaashi raised an eyebrow and Bokuto realised that he needed to get his shit together if he ever wanted to have a chance with him. He took a deep breath and tried to sound as confident as possible. “Would you like to get a coffee some time?”

“When?”

“Well…” For the sake of the chronological order, Bokuto liked to have the coffee dates at some point during the morning. “How about right now? I don’t have classes until 11am.”

“But I do.” 

Damn. “Then how about later?”

“My last class ends at 3pm.” 

“Great.” Bukoto beamed. “I’ll meet you at the main entrance of the cafeteria, then.”

\---

It was weird. It was  _ really _ weird. 

The dating routine had always worked so far, so why shouldn’t it work with Akaashi?

Well, because ‘Akaashi wasn’t like the other guys’ might have been an obvious answer. But Bokuto only came to realise that when he was already sitting in front of Akaashi at a secluded table in the cafeteria.

They went through the most obvious topics in the first few minutes:

The coffee was good, they both had a good day during their classes and the weather was nice. 

It was frustrating. Usually these coffee dates were fun and uncomplicated, but with Akaashi it was just plain awkward. Bokuto thought desperately about other topics to talk about, but that bored expression on Akaashi’s face caused Bokuto's usual confidence to falter.

Sure, there was still the most obvious topic for small talk, but Bokuto had hoped he could somehow steer around it. After all, volleyball wasn’t the most romantic thing to talk about.

Finally, Akaashi broke the silence. “So, why did you ask me to get coffee with you?” 

Bokuto shrugged and hoped he wasn’t blushing. He was a bad liar. “I don’t know, just felt like it.” 

“So is this a date?”

Bokuto sputtered, most definitely blushing now. “What? Why do you ask?”

It’s not like this  _ wasn’t  _ a date. He, admittedly, had planned it to be,, but the first date was always supposed to be discrete. Ideally, the guys never knew it was a date.

“Usually, when you go to drink coffee with a guy, you can be seen snogging him two weeks later, so…” Akaashi shrugged. 

“Wow, that was honest.” Bokuto laughed, even though he didn’t really feel like it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Why was this guy so observant?

The two stayed quiet for a bit and Bokuto racked his brain for something else to talk about to steer away from the dating topic, but his head was empty apart from volleyball. 

“You didn’t give me an answer though.” 

So volleyball it was.

“Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about the upcoming game.” The setter didn’t seem impressed. ”I know we could have done that during training, but I always feel like coffee gets my creative juices flowing better than the smell of sweat.” 

“Creative juices?” Akaashi raised an eyebrow.

Bokuto shrugged. “Anyways, I was thinking that we need to adjust our strategy just a little to include the new players on the team…” He continued rambling, knowing fully well that what he said was complete bullshit and that Akaashi would see right through it. 

For some reason though, Akaashi played along and they actually had a new game plan to present to their coach at the end of their sort of, but not really, date. 

Bukoto felt a little weird when he left the cafeteria after saying his goodbyes to Akaashi. He just had coffee with Akaashi Keiji. Sure, they just talked about volleyball, but that still counted for something, right?

\---

Usually, the next point in his plan would have been meeting Akaashi in the hallway and giving him a compliment. The thing was, that they already saw each other at least once, sometimes even twice a day, during volleyball practice. 

Akaashi normally played along quietly with the other members of the team. He wasn’t one to shout praises to other players and likewise, didn’t receive much praise himself. However, what had,at first, seemed to be a bad thing for team morale turned out alright because, when Akaashi praised a player, it now meant all the more to them. 

In the following days, Bokuto made sure to give the setter just as many compliments as the other guys. Whether it was a “great toss” or “nice save”, he told him so, just like he would with the other teammates. Maybe it was just his imagination, since he wanted his compliments to have an effect on Akaashi, but he did feel like the volleyball was even easier to spike than usual after Akaashi’s tosses.

The other spikers also seemed to feel the difference though, and started giving him compliments for the tosses as well. It wasn’t as though the atmosphere on the court was usually bad, but something simply changed for the better when they became less restrained with their compliments towards the setter. One moment stood out in particular: After Bokuto had spiked a pretty normal ball, it was Akaashi who told him that that was “a great one”. Bokuto wasn’t the only one with a shocked expression on his face in that moment.

Nevertheless, Bokuto felt he owed Akaashi a real compliment. After all, compliments on the volleyball court didn’t really count, since everyone got them and he needed Akaashi to feel more special. There was a slight problem with that though. 

First of all, he didn’t really know when to talk to Akaashi outside of volleyball. Whenever the training was over, everything went back to normal and Akaashi, as arrogant as ever, didn’t even bother making eye contact with Bokuto when they met in the hallways. That made the whole ‘having a short conversation in the hallway’ kind of hard and ruined Bokuto's perfect plan. 

Secondly, Bokuto didn’t really know what to compliment him on. Apart from his volleyball skills, he still didn’t know anything about Akaashi. Sure, he could compliment the guy on his looks, he  _ was _ hot after all. But Akaashi seemed to know that fact all too well and Bokuto didn’t want to inflate his ego even more.

\---

The opportunity presented itself a week later when Bokuto had entered the wrong classroom while searching for the toilets. From the looks of it, it was an art class he had interrupted, however, just as he remembered from high school, it was messy and very noisy, so his mistake didn't attract much attention. He was grateful for that. 

Just as he was about to turn around to leave and go on his quest to find the toilets again, his eyes fell on the tall, dark haired boy sitting right by the windows. Akaashi was sitting in front of a rather big canvas, and seemed to be so absorbed in his work that he didn’t notice Bokuto approaching.

It took Bokuto some time to realise what he was looking at. There was a lot happening, and the longer he looked, the more details came to his attention. The first thing he saw was the volleyball player in the middle of a spike. It was fascinating, really, because he looked to be so… in motion, even though it was just a painting. Weirdly enough, the ball seemed to have been tossed by a ballerina, who was standing on her tiptoes with one foot, the other leg raised to the side. Her arms were raised above her head, hands in the exact same position the setters hands would be after tossing a ball, but far more gracefully than Bokuto had ever witnessed on a volleyball court.

There was a piano player who seemed to be in the middle of his performance. His hands were smudged to emphasise how fast they were moving on the ivory keys and there were two children seemingly playing hide and seek ,as well as a little girl laying on the floor, reading a book. 

“That’s awesome,” he whispered more to himself than to anyone else, but Akaashi seemed to have heard and turned around startled.

“Geez, what are you doing here?”

“Uhm…” Only now did Bokuto realise that he might have come off as creepy, standing behind his teammate he barely knew and watching him paint. “I wanted to go to the bathroom, but went into the wrong room?” The sentence came off as more of a question than intended. Akaashi’s stare intimidated him.

He expected a small grin, or maybe an exaggerated sigh like his friends would react when they found out about one of his dopey mistakes, but Akaashi wasn’t like that. Of course.

“Please don’t startle me like that again, I nearly ruined the picture.” Not one obvious emotion in his tone, not even anger. What was it with this boy?

“Sure, won’t do that again.” Bokuto smiled. “Hey, I was going to go on a run after classes, would you like to join?” He needed to try, at least.

“Can’t.” Akashi pointed at the painting. “I need to finish this. Tomorrow is handin day.” 

“Sure, see you at practice then.” Bokuto smiled and he started to feel stupid for doing so, since Akaashi never bothered to return that smile. 

\---

Ten minutes later, he met up with Yukie in the cafeteria. They both had a biology test the next day and he still had a lot of studying to be done. Or better, Yukie had a lot of tutoring to do.

“So the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, I got that one.” He smiled brightly at his friend and she buried her face in her hands exasperatedly. 

“Yeah, but every middle school student knows that much. The question is how the mitochondria generates power.”   
  


“Oxidative phosphorylation?”

Yukie smiled. “Go on.” 

“There are some weird proteins doing it….complexes or something…” He groaned. “This is so unfair, we already had to study that last year, why do they need to know again?”

“Because you forgot all about it?” Yukie grinned, delighted by his desperation. 

“Fuck off.” 

They did get some studying done in the end. Well, Bokuto did, Yukie had already known most of the material. He felt a little guilty for coaxing her into explaining everything, but she insisted it was a good exercise for her as well.

“Alright, so the whole powerhouse of the cell thing is getting better, though they love to ask details about the complexes, so make sure you really know them by heart tomorrow. And it wouldn’t hurt you to read through the lab protocols from the previous weeks again.”

He smiled at her brightly. “Thank you so much, Yukie! You know, if we weren’t both gay, I would probably marry you!”

She scoffed, but looked amused nevertheless. “Don’t exaggerate, it’s still you who has to do the studying, I can’t do that for you.”

“Yeah alright…” He looked at the pile of lab reports in front of him. There was still a lot of reading to be done. “Do you want a coffee as a little ‘thank you’?”

“Nah it’s alright, I’ve got a coffee date later. Don’t want to overdose on caffeine.”

“Coffee date, huh?” He grinned. Yukie had started copying his first few dates sometimes after realising they were actually as efficient as Bokuto had always claimed. ”Speaking of, I went to get coffee with Akaashi last week.”

“Oh? How was it?”

“Awkward? Ok?” Bokuto shrugged. “Well, awkward at first, then ok after we started talking about volleyball. But it didn’t really pan out as I had hoped it would.”

“I wouldn’t have offered to be the manager again if I’d thought it would be easy.”

“I know!.” Bokuto whined. “But it’s just so hard to talk to him about anything other than volleyball!”

“Well that’s very sad,” Yukie got distracted and waved at a girl that was approaching the table, “but it’s really not my problem.”

“Mean!” Bokurto pouted, before he started putting his lab reports into his bag. “You two keep the table, I’m going to the library or something.” He got up and grinned cheekily. “Have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Yukie stuck out her tongue and he got going.

Originally, he had wanted to go running, but the study session with Yukie had sadly made him realise how much he still needed to study for that test. He went to the cafeteria counter to get himself a coffee and paused, suddenly struck with an idea. “Sorry, could you make that two cups to go?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the second chapter, let me know what you thought in the comments!  
> I will probably update this story about once a week every wednesday from now on.  
> Again, big shoutout to @justaweeboonugget from tumblr who turns this mess of a bokuara fic into something that kind of resembles an actual story!


	3. A painting and a picnic

Akaashi cared about university. He liked the hallways filled with students, each with their own ambitions and dreams, all of them connected by their desire to learn. He cared about university because he got to learn. He got to read, to paint, to play volleyball, to get better at things he didn’t even know he wanted to get better at, always improving himself.

\---

It was only a guess, but when Bokuto peeked into the classroom from earlier, Akaashi was still sitting in front of the painting, though the classroom was now empty and a lot quieter than earlier. Not wanting to scare his teammate again, he knocked on the doorframe quietly.

“Would you mind if I joined you? I brought coffee.”

Akaashi just shrugged and Bokuto saw that as an absolute win. At least he didn’t send him away. 

They sat quietly next to each other for a while and Bokuto actually managed to get through half of his lab reports before he got distracted. Earlier, he had only watched Akaashi working from behind, but now he was sitting in a way where he could look at the painter's profile as well as the painting itself and it was mesmerising. 

With full concentration, Akaashi didn’t seem to notice anything other than the brush in his hands and the effect it had on the canvas. He pursed his lips and squinted at the painting from time to time, before mumbling something to himself and changing the brush, the colours, or his position on the stool. The painting was so close to done that he only needed to work on little details like the shadows the folds of the tutu or the crinkles in the volleyball player’s concentrated face. It was fascinating, really, Bokuto thought, how such a tall and strong guy with his big, callused fingers could paint something so intricate. The expression on Akaashi’s face was different than usual, as well. Though he was wearing his game face, concentrated and a little tense, his expression was just a little softer than usual, the arrogance gone, replaced by something new that Bokuto couldn’t quite grasp. 

“What is it?” 

Bokuto felt his cheeks flush when Akaashi caught him staring.

“Your painting is really cool.”

“You said that earlier already .” 

Why couldn’t this guy just say thanks to a compliment. Was that really too much to ask for?

“Well it’s still true, if not even more so than earlier. Your work on the details really brings the whole thing to life.”

“Thank you.” There it was. And even more: Akaashi was smiling. Bokuto couldn’t help but smile back. “The assignment was called ‘Movements’ so that’s really important. The whole coming to life aspect, I mean.” He studied his brush for a moment before changing it to a smaller one. “You don’t think it’s too much? I don’t want to overwhelm the picture.”

“No, I think it’s just right. Every time I look at it, I find new details, but it’s not overwhelming, it just makes me want to look at it longer.” Bokuto paused. “I think I like the volleyball player the best, though. Kind of reminds me of Hinata when he’s doing one of those ridiculously high jumps.” 

Akaashi smiled again, what the fuck. “I actually based the player on Hinata. He’s really the definition of movement when he’s running up and down the net, trying to get around the blocks.” He put a bit of white on the black piano as a reflection of the light. “At first, I wanted to draw a volleyball team, you know, when there’s been a long ball exchange and both teams are desperate to make the point, unexpectedly saving even the most ridiculous balls.”

‘That would have been really cool,’ Bokuto thinks to himself. “Why didn’t you do that, then?” 

“Well, after sketching the spiker it only seemed appropriate to draw the setter. So... me, basically. However, I’m not really good at self portraits, I decided to draw a ballerina setting the ball instead. Since these dancers have their arms above their heads every so often, it seemed funny to have her set the ball.” The fact that he seemed uncomfortable drawing himself surprised Bokuto. 

Akaashi added another white dot to the piano. “The piano came next, because I thought the ballerina would enjoy some music to dance to. It’s also a bit of an inside joke since symphonies are usually structured into  _ movements. _ ..” He chuckled lightly while inspecting the piano. “Though, it’s not really a good joke seeing as a ballerina wouldn’t dance to a symphony.” 

Bokuto had no idea what this guy was talking about, but he just agreed, afraid of sounding stupid if he didn’t.

“The kids I get; children are always moving, never standing still but what about the girl reading?”

“Yet another interpretation of movement. You know, when a novel really moves you in an emotional way?” 

This time, Bokuto knew what he meant. “What is she reading?”

Akaashi frowned. “It’s up to you, really. I originally wanted her to read Harry Potter, but the book cover never came out right, so I decided to leave it blank for the viewer to let her read whatever.” 

“Harry Potter it is then.” Bokuto had only watched the movies so far and gave up during the middle of the first book, but he made a mental note in his head to ask Yukie to lend him her collection. 

They stayed quiet for some time and Bokuto tried to focus on the lab reports again, but he couldn't help stealing glances to Akaashi from time to time. After some time, the artist started washing his pens and cleaning up his workspace.

“Are you done?” 

“Well, not 100%, but I don’t really know how to improve it anymore.” He shrugged. “But it should be enough for a B, I guess.”

Bokuto huffed. “As if the professor would give you anything less than an A for that! It’s amazing!”

“I wish, but look at the pictures the others made!” Akaashi gestured around the room and Bokuto’s eyes followed. It was true, there were a lot of great paintings sitting around in the room. There were several Ballerinas, obviously a popular topic, one student had drawn a soccer player shooting a goal and another work was just countless little paintings showing a high jumper during their run-up, jump and fall. The last one, though, was the only one that really caught Bokuto’s attention. Sure, the other pictures were nice, but in Bokuto’s opinion, they had failed to achieve the one important thing: Showing movement. The shoes of the ballerinas looked more like a still life and the goalie in the soccer picture seemed just a little grotesque. 

Suddenly, Bokuto had an idea. “Let’s make a bet. If you get an A, I win. If it’s a B or worse, you win.”

“And what’s the wager?” 

“I’ll get you coffee or something for the rest of the week if you win.” Akaashi nodded, that seemed to work for him.

“And if it’s the other way around, I’ll get the coffee for you?”

“Nope.” Bokuto hesitated. It was a risky move, after all, his whole date routine hadn’t really worked so far, so he couldn't be sure it would work now. “If I win, you’re going on a date with me.” 

Something clattered, Akaashi had dropped his pencils in the sink and turned around surprised. “Wh-what,” he spluttered. Cute.

Bokuto tried to play it cool, even though his heart raced like he had just done 30 laps around the gym. “Nothing too special, just a picnic for lunch.” He smiled. 

“O-ok…” Akaashi had turned back to the sink, furiously cleaning his brushes. “It’s a deal.” 

“Nice.” Bokuto lifted his fist in victory pose behind Akaashi’s back.

“You know I can see everything in the reflection of the mirror.” The setters voice had gone back to it’s usual sharp tone, and Bokuto felt his ego deflating a little.

\--- 

They walked to the bus stop together afterwards, not really talking anymore. Just as they turned around the corner, Bokuto saw his bus arriving. 

“I gotta run, see you tomorrow at practice.” He started sprinting to the bus station, but Akaashi stopped him. 

“Wait!” Bokuto turned around. “So was the meeting at the cafeteria a date, after all?” 

Bokuto grinned cheekily and winked. “That, my dear, is up to you to decide!” He turned around again, waving at the bus driver to wait. And it was a shame really, because he missed out on Akaashi’s face going red like a tomato.

\---

  * good setter
  * arrogant



Bokuto looked at the list he had started writing the day after the dare, hoping this guy would make more sense if he wrote down everything he knew about him.. After yesterday, he finally had a few things to add:

  * good setter


  * arrogant - is he though??? (didn’t want to paint himself…)
  * quiet, but not shy
  * artistic
  * likes classical music?
  * likes harry potter
  * seems to be impressed by Hinata's skills and likes volleyball enough to paint it
  * can actually smile and show human emotions (unexpected)
  * likes his coffee black, no milk, no sugar (disgusting)
  * very attentive (knew the coffee date was a date right away)



It wasn’t a lot and he still didn’t really know who Akaashi was, but it was an improvement. Bokuto caught himself smiling when he thought about the hours spent in the art classroom. It had been nice. Really nice. 

Before, the whole dare had been an annoying task since spending time with people he didn’t really like wasn’t necessarily one of Bokuto’s favourite things to do, but now he was actually looking forward to lunch. Well, provided Akaashi got the A he deserved. If not, Bokuto thought smugly, he’d still have a week of coffee duty, which meant a week of at least one short conversation a day. 

“What are you smiling at?”

Bokuto looked up to Kenma, who just came out of Kuroo’s bedroom in his boyfriend’s pyjamas, even though it was 2pm. He came closer and looked over his shoulder on the piece of paper Bokuto had been working on. 

“So you’re really going through with that dare?” 

Even though it was an unspoken rule that truths and dares stayed between the people that were actually in the game, Bokuto wasn’t surprised Kenma knew about Akaashi. He and Kuuro were basically joined at the hip, whatever Kuroo knew, Kenma knew as well. Not that Bokuto was bothered by that, after all, Kenma was a lot more discreet with these kinds of things than his boyfriend.

“Yes, I mean, Yukie said she would come back on the team for this.” Bokuto grinned. “And I really wanted your boyfriend to make me bentos for two months.” 

Kenma didn’t return the smile. “You know, there’s more to Akaashi than that.” He gestured at the list. “Please be careful with this whole thing.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Kenma shrugged and turned around to the kitchen cabinets to prepare his breakfast. “Why is my cereal gone?” With that, the conversation was over and Bokuto tried to disappear into his room as inconspicuously as possible. He and Kuroo had been wondering just this morning where that incredible berry cereal had come from. 

\---

“Sooo, Akaashi?” 

They were in the gym stretching after practice. Bokuto hadn’t yet found an opportunity to speak to the setter in private, but now, as the group was slowly scattering and everyone did the stretching they felt like doing, he decided to approach him.

“What is it?” 

“Did the professor already grade your paintings?”

“Yes. Neither of us won.”

Bokuto frowned as he stretched his shoulders. “How’s that so?”

“Well, we said that you would win if I got an A and I would win if I got a B or worse.” ”Akaashi leaned forward to touch his toes.

“Yes. So what did you get?”

“An A minus. Good enough for me to lose, too bad for you to win.

Bokuto shook his head. “Forget it, that’s too close. You’re  _ so  _ coming on a date with me!” 

He expected some resistance, but Akaashi just said “ok", before he continued stretching his hamstrings.

“Nice, tomorrow then, 11:30 at the main entrance?” Bokuto followed his example and bent forward to touch his toes. 

The setter hesitated. “12 would be better for me.” 

“Alright then, 12 it is.” Bokuto beamed, as he got up, but Akaashi had already started walking towards the dressing room. “See you,” he yelled after him, not getting an answer, but he didn’t expect one anyways.

\---

Akaashi didn’t notice Bokuto approaching, which he was kind of glad about, because it gave him the opportunity to really appreciate what he got to see.

Akaashi was leaning against the university building, one foot propped against the wall, only wearing a T-Shirt and Shorts, since it was already pretty warm outside. While it was definitely not the first time Bokuto had seen the setter in such an outfit, it was the first time he truly looked at his body. And what a body it was: already slightly tanned even though they hadn’t had that many sunny days yet, Akaashi’s body was muscular in a way that one couldn’t get from spending time in a fitness studio but from years and years of athletic practice. 

Wearing sunglasses and listening to music on his headphones, he looked as unapproachable and arrogant as ever. There was something peaceful about him though, it just seemed like he was in his own little world. Bokuto would have loved knowing what was going on in his eyes behind those designer shades. 

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Well damn, apparently he  _ had _ noticed him approach, and stare, after all.

“Hello to you, too!” 

Akaashi pulled down his headphones and pushed himself off the wall, coming up to Bokuto. “So, where are you taking me today?”

\---

The picnic was nice, really nice. At least in Bokuto's opinion. And judging from the content look on Akaashi’s face, who was lying on the picnic blanket, eyes closed, smiling just a little bit, he liked it as well. 

“That nanohana no karashiae was really good. Did you make it yourself?” 

“Yup.” Bokuto grinned. It was really fortunate that one of the few things he could cook turned out to be Akaashi’s favourite food. Then again, it wasn’t like nanohana no karashiae was that hard to make. 

“Do you cook often or just to impress your dates?”

Again, he had looked right through Bokuto, who usually ate in the cafeteria or let Kuroo cook, only working in the kitchen if he really had to.

“Well, are you impressed?”

Akaashi opened his eyes and looked at him. “Maybe. Just a little bit. I didn’t think you’d put so much effort into this.” 

“You underestimate me,” Bokuto answered. “Big mistake.” 

“Oh I’m not worried, I’ve been your setter for long enough to know how much you like overestimating yourself.” 

Bokuto blushed. That stung a little, mostly, because it was true. He knew he was sometimes too enthusiastic, had his highs and lows, but in the end he got the results right? They’d been one of the best high school teams in Tokyo and now he was playing for one of the best university teams in Japan. 

“Oh don’t get all depressed now! You’re still a pretty good ace!” Akaashi grinned. Bokuto relaxed a bit and started picking some flowers from the meadow. Akaashi closed his eyes once again and they were quiet for some time. 

“Say, do you like art in general or do you just enjoy creating art?” 

Akaashi stayed quiet and for a moment, Bokuto thought he might have fallen asleep, until Akaashi started speaking slowly, thoughtfully composing his sentence. “I like art in general. I actually enjoy looking at it more than creating it myself. It’s more calming, less pressure, you know? Still, there is something satisfactory when you can look at a painting that you made yourself. And you can never find that kind of satisfaction by going to the museum.” 

“That makes sense.” 

Akaashi shrugged. “In general, I’m more of a spectator. I draw mostly because I’m required to for class, but I’m not the kind of guy who suddenly gets these bursts of inspiration and needs to get out his sketchbook immediately.”

“So you don’t want to become an artist?” Bokuto was surprised, after seeing Akaashi’s work, he would have expected him to be an art student.

“No. Very few people in my art class want to become artists, actually. Most just come to have some creative outlet.” 

“And you?” As the team captain, he only just realised how weird it was that he didn’t know what field his setter was majoring in.

“I’d like to become an editor one day.” Bokuto raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t that the job of an editor didn’t fit Akaashi, but it was just so realistic… and boring? Well, maybe not boring, but it wasn’t one those jobs children dream of having one day, like being a nurse, an astronaut, or in Bokuto’s case: a professional volleyball player.

“Is there a lot of money in editing?” He blurted the question out before thinking about it.

If Akaashi was bothered by the question, he didn’t let it show. “Depends on where you work and stuff, but the pay’s pretty average as far as I know.”

“What’s your reason to do it then?” That sounded horrible. Why was his mouth always faster than his brain? “I’m sorry, it’s just, I’ve never known anyone who wanted to become an editor and I don’t really get it, I guess…” 

“Well, I like literature and I like being a smartass. In editing, I get to be part of the creative process without actually having to be the creative one.”

“And what’s the art class for then?”

“To know more about painting in general, because manga are a huge part of japanese printed media.”

Bokuto thought back to all the professional paintings he had seen in the classroom. None of them seemed to be typical for manga. “How’s that worked out so far?” 

“Not well, to be honest.” 

Akaashi chuckled and once again, Bokuto was surprised how natural a conversation with him could feel. Why had he never really tried talking to him before?

Bokuto looked at the daisies in his hand that he had unconsciously picked during the conversation. In the spur of the moment, he handed the mini bouquet to his date.

“For you.” 

Akaashi smiled and took the flowers. “Thanks.” 

Bokuto plopped down next to the setter, laying on his side so he could look at his face. Akaashi turned his head to look at him as well and the atmosphere shifted. Where it had been light and easy before, a tension had suddenly started building up between them. 

“You’re welcome.” His voice was quieter than before, as he stared into Akaashi’s dark eyes. 

Akaashi came a little closer, the distance between them now barely more than 15 centimeters. Dark blue eyes like the sky right before a storm. There was a tiny scar right above Akaashi’s upper lip. His lips. Bokuto had no idea what this guy was doing to him, but the closeness made him feel dizzy and he was weirdly aware of his own heartbeat. He enjoyed the moment, looking between Akaashi’s eyes and his plum lips, wondering if he should just take his chance and go in for a kiss. He closed his eyes.

“So do you do this with all of your dates?” Akaashi’s soft voice stood in contrast to the critical question he was asking.

“What do you mean?” Bokuto opened his eyes again, irritated.

“Word gets around, you know? The guys you go out with are always so happy to be with  _ the  _ Koutarou Bokuto. The good looking, funny volleyball ace. And then he’s also  _ so _ romantic!” His voice was still calm, but had gotten more of a mocking tone with every word he spoke.

“But these romantic stories seem to be repeating. First the spontaneous coffee date, then the beautiful picnic by the lake under the willow tree. I was just wondering how much of this is routine and how much is actually spontaneous.” Akaashi smiled, though it didn’t reach his eyes. “Is just the date by the lake planned or do you calculate everything? Making my favourite food, asking these spontaneous, kind of deep questions, giving me these flowers as if you just had the idea to do so right now.”

“I... “ Bokuto was at a loss for words. “It’s not meant to be mean, it just works. I mean you had some fun today, didn’t you?” He knew he had said the wrong thing just as the words left his mouth. 

Akaashi got up and put on his sunglasses again, making it near impossible for Bokuto to see what he was thinking. Not like that was any easier when he  _ could _ look into his eyes. 

“You’re right. I did have fun today. And the food was good.” He got up. “Next date should be the cinema, right? I don’t think I have time for that in the next few weeks though.” With that, he turned around and left a completely flabbergasted Bokuto on the picnic rug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you liked this chapter, let me know what you thought in the comments!  
> As always a big shoutout to my beta @justaweaboonugget on tumblr!


	4. A new plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has taken their time to comment and leave kudos on this story so far! I hope you like this chapter!

Akaashi cared about art. He cared about books, music, paintings, movies, everything that somehow showed the creativity and talent of the creator. 

Maybe he was so fascinated by these things because they were so unattainable for himself, knowing he himself would never be a famous writer, a prodigy pianist or have his own art gallery. He still tried from time to time nevertheless: painting, playing the piano, writing short, stupid poems.

Maybe he cared so much about art because it always managed to calm him down in some way, making it possible for him to feel and experience things that he didn’t in real life. 

Though, he didn’t think about these reasons too much. What mattered to him was art and enjoying it whenever he could.

  
  


\---

The following days Bokuto tried talking to Akaashi again, but it wasn't easy. It wasn't as though the setter ignored him, he had just gone back to his usual self, only talking if he was asked to, keeping his answers short, always a sharp edge to his tone. 

Bokuto tried to talk to him about the date during training the next day, but Akaashi simply told him to pay more attention to the ball and was long gone when Bokuto wanted to try again at the end of practice. 

That happened several days in a row until Bokuto finally decided to intercept him after class instead of training. However, since it was the weekend, he had to wait another two days to set his plan into motion. 

Well, there wasn't much of a plan if he was being honest. He brought a cup of coffee, hoping that might put Akaashi in a good, or at least an ‘okay’ mood, just enough to talk with Bokuto. But, as Bokuto stood in front of the classroom door, he realised that he didn’t really know what to talk about. Sure, he had to apologize, that seemed to be expected, even his friends had told him to do so, but apart from that, he had no idea how to get back on track with the whole ‘making Akaashi fall in love with him’ thing.

Before he could think about it any longer though, the door opened and students came out of the class, chatting about their newest assignment. Akaashi was last to come out and ignored Bokuto at first, until he had called the setters name three times and it would have been weird not to react for any longer. 

“What is it?” His voice was monotone, but he was wringing his hands, prompting Bokuto to wonder if he might actually not be as uninterested in this conversation as it seemed. 

Bokuto handed him the coffee. “I brought you coffee?” He hated how it sounded more like a question than a statement. His confidence was gone, like it always was when he was talking with Akaashi. 

“Thank you?” Akaashi didn’t seem to be sure what to do with that, but took the coffee nevertheless. 

“And I was wondering if you wanted to walk to the bus station with me?” Relieved, Bokuto realised his voice was starting to sound more confident again, even though he wasn’t. The hardest part of the conversation, the one that he hadn't really planned out yet, was still imminent. Akashi nodded as an answer, carefully taking a first sip of the coffee. 

“Is that a vanilla latte?!” 

Bokuto laughed. “Yes, I thought I should teach you what good coffee tastes like. That black water you call coffee can’t be good for you.” 

The setter just shook his head, but surprisingly didn’t complain any more. 

They walked in silence for some time, while Bokuto tried to find the right words to apologize. 

“You know, I’m sorry.” 

Akaashi scoffed. “For what exactly?”

“What do you mean?” Bokuto was confused.

Akaashi took another sip before he answered. “I don’t know, I just feel like you’re saying you’re sorry because you feel like you have to. But you don’t even know what you’re supposed to be sorry for, right?”

“I mean, I guess I’m sorry because I went on the same date with you as I did with my exes?”

“And why is that a bad thing?” Bokuto couldn’t answer that question, he still didn’t see the problem with his dating routine. 

The setter sighed. “Ok, I’ll tell you: I have no idea where the idea to date me all of a sudden came from, it’s not like I would fit into your usual dating scheme. But I do know how your relationships work. I’ve met enough exes of yours in my classes to know how things go. You always start with the same cute first dates, then you confess after a week or two, you’re with the guy for another month or so and then it’s over as though it never happened in the first place.” 

He paused, tapping with his fingers against the coffee cup. “And I mean, I don’t know why you asked me to go out with you and I don’t even know if I want to go out with you, but what I  _ do  _ know is that I don’t want this to end like all of your other relationships. We play on the same team and nationals are starting soon, so I really don’t think it would be a good idea to endanger our team spirit like that.” 

He was silent for a moment, and when he spoke up again, his voice was a lot quieter than before. “And to be honest, I care a little too much about myself to let you treat me like your exes, to be disposed of as soon as I’m not interesting anymore.”

They stayed quiet for some time, as they continued walking to the bus station.

“For what it’s worth,” Bokuto finally spoke up, “I don’t treat you like everybody else. I took you on the same date, that’s true, but the things that happen on the dates aren’t all planned out.” He smiled a little, unsure if what he said was helping at all. “I’ve never given daisies to a guy before.” They arrived at the bus station. “And I really like spending time with you.” 

As he said that, he realised, he wasn’t lying about it. There was something about Akaashi’s presence that made him feel comfortable and excited at the same time. “So would you ever consider giving me a second chance and let me convince you to go another date with me?” 

Akaashi shrugged and smiled ever so slightly. “Maybe.” 

And that was good enough for Bokuto.

\---

“I need a new dating routine.”

“Oh wow, what made you realise that?” Kuroo grinned and took a sip of his lemonade.

“Or should we ask  _ who _ made you realise that?” Yukie seemed just as amused as Kuroo. Kenma didn’t react at all, playing some game on his phone, but it would have been wrong to assume he didn't listen.

Bokuto told them about the conversation he’d had with Akaashi the day before. “I think he wants me to take him on some really special date, but I’m drawing a blank here. I’m used to my standard dates.”

“Not to say I told you so, but I did always tell you that this dating routine was stupid.” 

“It’s not stupid!” Bokuto protested, though somewhere deep down, he knew Kuroo was right.

“Of course it is," Yukie endorsed Kuroo,"and if you thought you could get Akaashi to fall in love with you with a few routine, automated dates, well…” She shrugged. “You and the team were always complaining about how arrogant he is, so why did you think you could win him over by treating him how you treat everyone else?”

That was exactly what Akaashi had hinted at yesterday. She was right, of course. Yukie was always right. Not that Bokuto would ever give her the satisfaction of telling her so. 

“I already know that, that’s why I said I needed a new routine.” 

“You don’t need a new routine.” Everyone turned to Kenma, who had spoken up. Still looking at his phone, he continued. “Your routine isn’t flawed. The fact that you even  _ have _ a routine is the real issue.” They waited for him to continue, but Kenma went back to his quiet mode, immersed in his game.

“But it’s not that easy to find new dates for everyone. I’m not that creative!”

“I think that’s the problem though.” Kuroo for once sounded serious. “You date too many guys. You always complain how it never works out and stuff, but with this dating routine, you treat each and every one of them the same. Of course it never works out like that.” 

“So you think I’m a fuckboy?!” Yukie and Kuroo sighed and even Kenma frowned a bit.They had had these conversations often enough to know what was coming. 

“Exactly.” 

“You know that’s not fair, Yukippe.” 

“Don’t call me that.”

“I just fall in love quickly, I’m impulsive and passionate like that! But I don’t cheat, I never would. I’m always respectful and nice.” 

“Treating every guy the same and dating someone else a week after the breakup isn’t respectful and nice. It’s fuckboy behaviour at it’s finest.” 

It wasn’t the first time Yukie had said that to him, but somehow, it was the first time Bokuto actually understood what she meant. Maybe it was because of the image of Akaashi’s expression as he got up and left the week before, or the tone in his voice when he told Bokuto he didn’t want to be treated the same as everyone else. Both things Bokuto couldn't stop thinking about.

“Ok, so I don’t need a new routine, but I need ideas for another date either way. I don’t think there’s any way Akaashi would say yes to another date if it’s not something truly special.”

“Well, this was all very nice and stuff, but this is your dare to take care of and I think Kenma and I need to get to organic chemistry.” 

Bokuto scoffed. “Next class my ass.” But as he looked at his watch he realised it was already a lot later than he had expected and he would be late for his next class as well if he didn’t hurry.

Kenma frowned, clearly not excited at the prospect of a lecture. Then again, it wasn’t as though he was paying attention to any of these classes since he had no intention of getting a degree at university. His youtube channel was already earning him enough money to not worry about such things. The only reason he still sometimes came to class was to spend time with Kuroo, which was kind of cute if Bokuto thought about it. 

They started packing up their stuff and were just about to go when Yukie held Bokuto back. 

“I think I might have an idea for Akaashi, but I’m going to have to talk to Suzumeda first. I’ll text you later.”

\--- 

After Bokuto was done with his last class and on his way to volleyball practice, he looked at his phone.

From: Yukipppeee

3:27 pm

Have you ever been to the museum of digital arts?

From: Yukipppeee

3:29 pm

nvm I know you haven’t and I might have the super secret information that Akaashi really wants to go there, but hasn’t been yet

From:Yukipppeee

3:30 pm

so you’re going to take Akaashi to visit the museum with you

That was a good plan, it only had one flaw. Some artsy guy he had dated once always wanted to go there as well, but there had been a problem.

From: Kotaro Bokuto

3:47 pm

But that’s going to take all day with these crazy waiting lines. I don’t think we’re going to have the time for that 

From: Yukipppeee

3:50 pm

Great thing we both know someone who works at the museum who might get you around the waiting lines

From: Kotaro Bokuto

3:52 pm

???

From Yukipppeee

3:56 pm

Suzumeda!!

From: Yukipppeee

3:57 pm

Already talked to her hehe

From: Kaori Suzumeda

3:57 pm

Hi Bokuto! Heard you’re going on a date haha I’m really excited you and Akaashi finally got together :) When did you two plan on coming to the museum? Thursday evening would be best for me, though the other weekdays should work as well, only weekends are tricky

Bokuto furrowed his brows as he looked at the text. Yukie really worked fast and it was nice of Suzumeda to do him this favour even though they had kind of lost contact after high school. But what did she mean texting she was happy that he and Akaashi  _ finally _ got together? Did she think of someone other than Akaashi? 

“Watch where you’re going!” Bokuto looked up from his phone to see Akaashi, but it was already too late and he bumped into him at full speed.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I was just…”

Akaashi glared at him. “You shouldn’t walk and look at your phone at the same time.” Ok bad start… again. And just as Bokuto wanted to ask him for a second date. Great. Just amazing.

“Hey, Akaashi!” But the man had already turned around and walked into the locker room, not stopping even though he must have heard him. 

“Ok... later then,” Bokuto mumbled to himself and followed Akaashi into the locker room. For now he had to focus on training, they had a game against the university of Chiba coming up and they couldn’t afford to lose. Well, Bokuto’s ego couldn’t afford to lose.

\--- 

“Anyways, I’m going to visit Kageyama today! I’m really excited, I haven’t seen him in over a week!” Hinata’s voice was loud enough to be heard through the whole gym while they were stretching. He had a diabolic grin on his lips. “Maybe I can even get some secrets about their strategy for the game on Sunday out of him.”

Now it was time for the whole team to laugh. Hinata was a lot, but he wasn’t really the scheming type of person. “If anything, you’re going to tell him everything about  _ our _ strategy, dumbass.” Kuroo shouted across the court.

“Will not!” Hinata pouted. “I am capable of keeping secrets, it’s not fair you always act like I’m not!”

“Oh yeah?" Yaku, their libero joined the conversation. "Then what did the coach say to you yesterday?” 

“HAHA!” Hinata screamed at this point. “It’s a secret! You know I’m not supposed to say anything about the new jerseys.” 

While half of the team started rambling excitedly about the news, the other half stared at Hinata in disbelief. Hinata himself turned red like a tomato under the coach's glare, realising that he had just spilled the secret he was supposed to keep.

“How about you just enjoy the evening with your boyfriend and leave volleyball out of it?” Bokuto tried to stay rational and calm even though he had more and more doubts that their new surprise attack would still be surprising for Chiba by the time sunday came.

“You can play with another pair of balls instead!”

“KUROO!” Hinata, Yaku, and the coach shouted at the middle blocker in unison.

Akaashi was gone before Bokuto could finally stop laughing.

\---

The next morning before training, Bokuto tried again when he spotted the setter's black hair in the crowd of students before him.

“Akaashi!” The called one continued walking and Bokuto started running to catch up with him. 

“Akaashi, wait!” Still no reaction. Only when Bokuto had finally reached him and waved in front of his face did Akaashi acknowledge his existence.

“What??” He seemed startled, and Bokuto only realised as Akaashi took them out, that he was wearing earbuds.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to go…"

"No," Akaashi cut him off before he could even finish his sentence and continued walking. 

Bokuto hurried to keep pace."Wait, I'm not going to take you to the cinema!" Akaashi didn't answer, so Bokuto continued. "Give me one more chance. I don't want to treat you like everybody else, because you're not! And I really want to make this work." 

Akaashi slowed down and looked at him.

"So what's your new plan? Get me on top of a building with a nice view and confess to me? That won't work because I'm afraid of heights." 

Damn, that guy really knew everything about Bokuto's dating routine. But judging by the softer tone of his voice, Bokuto had him. He felt a little bad for it though. 

'I don't want to treat you like everybody else, because you're not'. It wasn't a complete lie, Akaashi was different from the guys Bokuto was used to dating, but that was also the reason why Bokuto was going out with him on a dare. Otherwise, he would have never even thought of asking Akaashi on a date. Still, there was a little part of Bokuto that felt it was true, that he  _ did  _ want to treat Akaashi special, that he, for some reason, wanted this arrogant man to give him a few of his rare smiles. 

"Nope. I've decided I'm not gonna recycle old dates anymore. Have you ever been to the museum of digital arts?" He really hoped Yukie had been right about that. If not, and Akaashi had already been there, his, or well, her plan wouldn't really work out.

"No, but I'm not really interested in going there, the waiting lines for the exhibitions are far too long."

"Well…" Bokuto grinned. "What if I could promise you no waiting time at all?" 

Interest sparked in Akaashi's eyes. "That might be nice..." 

"Perfect, does tomorrow evening work for you?"

\---

The next day went by in a rush, spending most of his time at practice. Their training had intensified in preparation for the game on Sunday and everyone was motivated to make the last few new tactics work before that. Even Akaashi stayed longer after practice to train his new surprise attack with Hinata and Yaku. 

Bokuto loved the atmosphere right before games like this. All the players were motivated, giving everything they had. 

“Bokuto-senpai, can you help me with that jump serve again?” He smiled. ‘Senpai.’ The little redhead sure knew how to charm his captain. 

“Sure thing Hinata,” he answered happily. Not only was the former Karasuno middle blocker the smallest team member, he was also the youngest, the game against Chiba being his first one where he got to play as a regular. It was his chance to prove himself and that made him train even more eagerly than usual.

He looked at the clock on the wall. “But only for 15 minutes, I gotta go after.” Today was his date with Akaashi at the museum and he still needed to get home to put away his books and dress appropriately. He only realised now that Akaashi was already gone. 

“That’s ok, I’m meeting up with Kenma later anyways.” His chirpy demeanor vanished, as he lowered his voice. “Did you know he and Kuroo got into a fight?” 

Bokuto thought about it for a moment and started laughing. “Yeah, Kuroo ate his apple pie. I got woken up by that in the middle of the night.” 

Hinata smiled, seemingly relieved. “Oh good, I was worried it was something worse!”

“Nah don’t worry, they never fight for real.” Bokuto shrugged. “But now back to volleyball, I’m going to show you how to get the nastiest spin on your serve!”


	5. Pretty lights

Akaashi cared about the way he looked. His grandparents had always made sure he was dressed nicely, his parents had always told him to ‘dress to impress’ and somewhere along the way these principles had become his own. He liked designer clothes, things that looked good and lasted for a long time and he couldn’t go out without his hair styled in the way he wanted it to be, its waves at least somewhat flattened by the blow dryer. 

Akaashi knew a lot of people talked about him behind his back and even though he realised that his designer clothes didn’t make him seem less arrogant or more approachable, at least looking good made sure there was one thing less they could criticize about him. 

\---

When they met up at the train station, Bokuto immediately felt underdressed. Akaashi stood there in a white button up, his hair seemed more orderly than usual in complete contrast to Bokuto, who had earlier felt accomplished because he wasn’t wearing his usual training clothes, but a grey monochrome T-Shirt with jeans. He wondered if there was a dress code for the museum that he had missed. 

“Hey!” Akaashi interrupted his thoughts. 

“Hi,” Bokuto answered and looked at Akaashi’s outfit once again, realising he might have been a little too quick to judge. The white button up might look impressive at the first glance, but it did have some crinkles here and there and it was paired with normal jeans. In the end, it was just Akaashi’s normal attire: somehow formal while also casual. ”Have you been waiting long?” 

“No, I just got here,” Akaashi assured him and they started walking towards the museum, talking about their day and the upcoming game.

“Bokuto!”

Bokuto turned around just to see a blonde girl running up to him, a big smile on her face. Next thing he knew, he had her ponytail in his face, nearly being suffocated by her hug. Not that he would mind. He hadn’t seen Suzumeda in a while and was just as excited to see her, so he hugged her back with the same enthusiasm.

“Suzumeda! How are you?”

“I’m good!” She let him go, to take a proper look at him. “You too, I hope. Have you grown? No wait, you’ve gained some muscles!” She touched his arm, feeling up his biceps, stroking over his shoulders. If it had been anyone but her, that gesture would have been highly inappropriate, but Suzumeda was his former manager and she had always bugged Bokuto to take his strength training more seriously. “Glad to see they make you train you properly at college!” 

Bokuto grinned. He had always been muscular, but now that he was doing weight training regularly, these muscles had really grown. Not only had his spikes gotten more powerful that way, but he also liked how it looked and it felt good to finally have someone commenting on it. 

“Akaashi!” Suzumeda turned around and finally paid attention to Bokuto’s date, who was standing next to him, fiddling with his fingers. Was he nervous? Suzumeda went on to embrace him in a bone crushing hug, similar to Bokuto’s. “How are you? It’s been years!” Akaashi smiled reluctantly and answered Suzumeda, quickly regaining his confidence again. 

They continued talking, mostly about old times and what Akaashi and Suzumeda had been up to over the past few years, while she guided them around the long waiting lines directly to the first exhibition. “Well, I need to get back to work again, but just tell the staff you’re with me when you want to get into another exhibition, and they’ll let you in without the wait.”  
  


Bokuto smiled at her. “You’re an angel, you know that?”

She laughed and the freckles on her nose seemed to dance. “Of course I know. Make sure to text me when you’re through, though. I have a surprise for you at the end!” With that, she turned around and disappeared somewhere between the lights. 

Only now did Bokuto start to take in his surroundings. They seemed to be in the middle of the most beautiful garden he’d ever seen, surrounded by flowers of all colours. He approached a wall to look at a bunch of especially beautiful roses and touched the wall, not believing that these could be just projections. The moment he touched the wall, the petals of the roses started to fall off, flying away, eventually leaving Bokuto to touch a bare wall. 

He turned around to look at Akaashi. “What was that?” 

Akaashi looked at the brochure he had gotten at the entrance. “Apparently it’s interactive like that.” He got closer to Bokuto and put his hand against another empty spot at the wall. Immediately, blue petals started swirling around out of nowhere, forming cornflowers on the spot where Akaashi had laid his hands. 

“Oh wow! This is amazing!” A few people turned around at the sound of his loud voice, but Bokuto couldn’t care less, walking around, touching every empty space he could find to see new flowers forming again and again. Once it was yellow petals, forming marigolds, another time, they were a pastel purple, turning into lilacs. “Look! Akaashi,” he shouted, as white petals started to turn into daisies, remembering the picnic. 

The setter smiled as he looked at the flowers and the excited Bokuto pointing at them proudly. He stayed more collected throughout the exhibit, looking at each and every flower with great interest, sometimes touching the flowers to see them disappear and touching the same, now empty spot on the wall to see what new kind of flowers would come up. “This is really smart,” he commented as multi-coloured petals turned into a field of tulips. Bokuto couldn’t help but laugh. Only Akaashi could look at such a beautiful place with so much realism. 

That went on throughout most of the exhibitions, Bokuto was always overjoyed with the lights, projections and colours, while Akaashi admired the technique behind it. The crystal world left both of them speechless, though if Bokuto was being honest, that wasn’t because of the exhibition itself. 

That exhibition wasn’t as colourful as the ones that came before. Instead it concentrated on the contrast between light and dark. Itt was a huge room, or at least seemed like it, the mirrors making it seem like the room didn’t have an end. The crystals didn’t keep Bokuto entertained for long though and just as he turned around to Akaashi, to ask him to go to the next exhibition, he found something new to look at. 

Akaashi was standing still in the middle of the crystals, his body and face only dimly lit by their reflections. It was the first time he seemed to truly take in what was in front of his eyes, enjoying every bit of it. This time, he didn’t comment on the smart use of mirrors, how the leds were perfectly positioned to imitate the light of reflecting crystals. He seemed utterly enchanted with this world, his face peaceful, his eyes brighter than ever, as they reflected all the lights. For a moment, Bokuto was tempted to take a picture of the setter, but he decided against it, instead just taking in the sight, trying to memorize every detail about him in this exact moment, never wanting to forget the beautiful, mysterious boy in the middle of the lights ever again. 

They went through waterfalls of lights next, then a room full of butterflies, returning to their routine of Bokuto shouting excitedly at Akaashi whenever he saw something new and Akaashi responding with genuine interest in the technology behind it. 

The last exhibit they visited was similar to the crystal world. It was mostly dark again and the mirrors made the room look bigger in a similar way. Though, this time, the lights didn’t come from LEDs that looked like crystals. Instead, the room was full of dimly lit, round lamps that shined in every colour Bokuto could think of. The lights reminded him a little of the sky lanterns they had sent to the sky at his cousin’s wedding. 

Something brushed against his arm, and he only realised now just how close he was standing to Akaashi, who seemed just as enchanted as Bokuto. He didn’t know if Akaashi’s hand touched his forearm by accident or if it was intentional, but since their hands were only inches apart anyways, Bokuto decided to take a chance and carefully touched Akaashi’s little finger with his own. He didn’t flinch back, which Bokuto took as a good sign and hesitantly hooked his little finger into Akaashi’s. It was weird, though, even though Bokuto had done many things in his life that were a lot less innocent than two fingers loosely intertwined - heck, they weren’t even holding hands for real - he felt himself blushing, unable to concentrate on anything other than his finger touching Akaashi’s. 

They slowly went through the lights, Fingers still intertwined, until Akaashi turned around to inspect a yellow light up closer. They lost touch for a second there, but before Bokuto could feel disappointed, Akaashi was back, this time grasping Bokuto's whole hand to pull him along.

“Come on, look at this.” They were in the middle of the room and only here did it become apparent that the lights were actually arranged according to colours: light pink lamps were next to white ones, followed by darker lamps of a stronger red, that turned into more of an orange shade until they were eventually yellow. It was a colour spectacle that couldn’t be seen from outside, where all the lamps had seemed to be positioned by coincidence, but here right in the middle, Bokuto realised that coincidences apparently didn’t exist in this museum. 

“Isn’t it amazing?” Akaashi’s voice was quiet, soft, so different than usual. Even after pulling Bokuto to the middle of the room, he was still holding his hand and it was kind of hard to concentrate solely on the lights with Akaashi’s warm hand in his. 

“Yeah, this is beautiful.” Bokuto said, smiling, not quite sure if he was talking about the lanterns or the fact that Akaashi’s hand seemed to fit in his own so perfectly.

\---

“Thank you so much for making this possible.” Bokuto smiled at Suzumeda.

“Don’t worry about it, I’d do anything for my favourite setter-ace duo.” She smiled back and continued guiding them through the people. “Though I would suggest you wait with thanking me until I’ve shown you the last exhibit, which is honestly my favourite.” 

Akaashi looked confused. “But we already went through everything, well, nearly everything, on the brochure.” 

“He didn’t want to come to the children's play space with me,” Bokuto added in a fake miffed tone. Akaashi snorted, amused.

Suzumeda turned around as she fumbled with some keys. “Well, you can’t read about it in the brochure because it’s not open to the public yet.” She found the right key and opened the door. 

The room they went into was different from the others. Sure, there was the excessive use of mirrors, just like in most of the exhibits, but there were a few ladders standing around, some cables and tools were laid out on the floor, suggesting there was still work to be done. The room was filled with big puffs of cotton wool that were seemingly floating in the air, but upon closer inspection, Bokuto saw the thin threads that held them up. 

“I know there’s still some work to do, but we just got done with the lighting installments yesterday and I really wanted to show it to you.” Suzumeda opened a door in the wall that Bokuto hadn’t even realised was there. Akaashi and Bokuto were left alone.

“What do you think this is?” 

Before Akaashi could answer, the normal lights went off and were changed for new lighting soon after. Behind a constant blue colour, pastel orange and rose mixed with violent pink and yellow tones. The colours reflected from the cotton wool, no, clouds, Bokuto realised.

“It’s dawn…” Akashi whispered, maybe more to himself than to Bokuto. He was right. The play of the colours, were exactly like the sky during an especially beautiful sunset. The mirrors induced some weird feeling of infinity, provoking exactly the kind of beautiful longing Bokuto always got when looking at the sky. 

He watched Akaashi, who seemed just as enchanted, turning around, trying to take everything in. The colours reflected on him as well, giving his face a beautiful golden glow.

“We looked at the sunet a little too long and were sad when it was over, so we decided to design a never ending one.” Bokuto hadn’t heard Suzumeda come back in. 

“This is amazing! It’s like we’re flying in the middle of the clouds!”

“Yeah…”

“And you designed it?” 

“Well, I helped with the lighting…” Suzumeda admitted.

“Which is the most important part! I didn’t even know what I was looking at before you turned on the lights!” 

“Well that’s because you're so dense! Everyone else would immediately know these are clouds.” But her teasing was softened by the big, proud smile in response to Bokuto’s compliment. “I am really proud though. Work here can be pretty boring, we rarely get to install new exhibits, it’s mostly just maintaining the current ones, adjusting lights and lasers, stuff like that. So this project was really something special for me.” 

Bokuto frowned. He didn’t like the tone of her voice. This really seemed to bother her. Suzumeda saw his face forced a smile. “I don’t know, it’s stupid, I mean I really like my job, but the excitement’s just missing sometimes, you know? And seeing you two…” She shrugged. “It just made me realise how amazing it was back during the tournaments, the constant stress of organising everything, the rush when you were playing on the field…” 

“We have a game on sunday, you should come to watch,” Bokuto offered. “Or join us afterwards, when we’re celebrating our big win against Chiba.” He grinned. 

She grinned back, the mood lightened a little. “Confident as always, I see.”

“Well, you could always join us as the team manager.” They hadn’t even realised Akaashi was listening until he spoke up. “I mean, just as a fun thing during free time, if you’re getting bored at work again.”

Suzumeda laughed. “I’ve thought about it, trust me, but I’m not enrolled, so I can’t be a part of the college team. Besides, a little birdy told me that Yukie might come back.” Bokuto tensed up. How much did Suzumeda know and more importantly: would she stay quiet about it?

“Wow really? Did you know about that, Bokuto?” Akaashi seemed really happy about the news.

“She’s not sure about it yet, so I kept quiet. I didn’t want to raise expectations or anything,” Bokuto mumbled. Technically not a lie. “There are still a few things to take care of first.” Like making you fall in love with me, you know, the usual stuff. 

He didn’t say that last part, of course, but there was a weird sting in his chest. For the first time, he actually realised that making Akaashi fall in love with him was eventually going to lead to Bokuto breaking his heart. And looking at Akaashi’s face, soaked in the golden colours of a beautiful fake sunset, a small, content smile on his face, he suddenly wasn’t so sure he could do that to him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today was my first day back to university and it was exhausting, so reading all of your comments really made my day, thank you! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! ^^
> 
> Btw. I have no idea what the museum of digital arts actually looks like, I just spent hours looking at pictures of the exhibits online and tried my best lol. The sunset room probably doesn't exist, but I thought it should, so I wrote it into the story.


	6. Sushi and Apple Pie

Akaashi cared about playing the piano, even though he wasn’t very good at it. At the young age of six, he had decided to become a famous pianist, only to have his dreams crushed after the first few lessons. He didn’t give up though. He still practiced eagerly, making the best out of his non-existent talent and with years of practice, he became a mediocre player, which was good enough for him. 

He eventually stopped taking lessons as volleyball became a bigger part of his life and took up more and more of his free time, but he still liked sitting down in front of the piano keys and playing the few songs he knew by heart. It calmed him down, giving his ever restless hands a task to accomplish. 

\---

“Ugh I’m so, so sorry! I totally forgot they’re closed on Thursdays!” 

Bokuto and Akaashi stood in front of a dark door, the restaurant behind it was one of Bokuto’s favourites.

“I really wanted to take you there, they have the best sushi!” He frowned, trying to think of an alternative. “There is a nice burger place around the corner, if you want to go there…” But Bokuto’s mood was ruined, and even if Akaashi wanted to get burgers, he had been looking forward to sushi all day and it annoyed him to no end that he had forgotten about the business hours of his favourite restaurant.

Akaashi looked at him first, then at the street signs around them. 

“I don’t want to eat burgers, but I know a sushi place that’s about 10, maybe 15 minutes from here. How about that one?”   
  


Bokuto wasn’t really convinced. “But it’s not going to be as good as they make it here!”

His date inspected the door, where the paint was already flaking off and the front window, which was broken and barely fixed with duct tape with a wrinkled nose. “Chances are high it’s going to be a lot better.” Arrogant idiot. The restaurant was way better than it looked from the outside. But Bokuto wasn’t really in the position to protest, that wouldn’t open up the restaurant either.

Twenty minutes, a few wrong turns and a lot of Bokuto complaining later, they finally arrived at their destination. The scene had changed, the street wasn’t as busy, the pavement was cleaner and the everlasting background noise of Tokyo seemed somehow quieter.

“Uhm, Akaashi, not to be stingy or anything, but this is way too fancy for me,” Bokuto whispered uncomfortably, as they stopped in front of a noble looking restaurant. A doorman in a tuxedo stood in front of the door, opening it for people in similar clothing. Thick velvet drapes hung at the sides of the enormous windows that displayed a bit of the inside. Bokuto felt out of place just standing outside of the restaurant. His simple T-Shirt didn’t help. Akaashi, on the contrary, with his white button up and the arrogant, no, confident look in his eyes seemed to fit right in. 

“Let me worry about that,” Akaashi told him and approached the doorman without any hesitation. They spoke a few words Bokuto didn’t hear until Akaashi gestured him to come closer and the man opened the door for them, where a waitress already awaited, leading them to a separate table that was illuminated by a candle. 

She left them alone for a second only to come back with wet towels, a service Bokuto had never gotten at his, well, ...not so fancy favourite restaurant. 

They stayed quiet for a few minutes afterwards. Bokuto tried to read the menu, but even the smallest appetisers cost more than the whole all you can eat menu at his favourite place, so he decided he would be good with just some tap water. Akaashi didn’t even bother to read the menu and fiddled with the tablecloth instead.

“What are we doing at this place?” Again, Bokuto only whispered, anything louder would have felt wrong in this establishment. “I mean, look at that bottle of wine they’re offering, I could pay my rent with that for a whole month!” He pointed at the menu. 

“I told you not to worry about it. It’s my treat or whatever.” 

“How? Are you rich or something?” Bokuto regretted the question as soon as it left his mouth. It sounded so stupid!

“No…” Akaashi answered a little too quickly. “I mean, it’s not that I’m poor or anything, my parents… they founded a company and that worked out pretty well for them. The restaurant... they usually come here for business dinners and stuff like that.” He smiled sheepishly, clearly uncomfortable with the conversation. “My mother… well she told me once, if I ever had a date, I should take the girl to this place and just put it on the company tab.” 

“Okay…” Bokuto still didn’t feel entirely comfortable and the more he thought about what Akashi had said, the worse it got. Akaashi’s parents were paying for his dinner, for this dare, that would probably end up hurting their son in one way or another. Bokuto had never had a good sense of what was polite and whatnot, but this seemed like the kind of thing his mother would scold him for if he ever told her. 

And another thing was on Bokuto’s mind. Akaashi’s mother had expected him to go out with a girl. He didn’t really know what to do with that information. Bokuto was pretty sure the setter was interested in guys. After all, no straight dude would go on dates with him and hold hands. So was Akaashi perhaps bisexual, or more likely, not out to his parents yet?

“Anyways, the sushi is the best I have, well, you will have ever had.” Akaashi grinned, interrupting Bokuto's train of thought and provoking him to defend his favourite restaurant. 

The mood lightened again and after ordering, they started talking easily. Well, it was mostly Bokuto talking. He told Akaashi the story of Kuroo who had eaten the last piece of Kenma’s apple pie that morning, leading to a relationship crisis between the two. “I was woken up at five in the morning! That’s not ok, I need my beauty sleep!” 

“Your beauty sleep? Don’t you think it’s a little too late for that?” Akaashi laughed at Bokuto’s hurt expression. “What was Kenma doing up so early anyways? I wouldn’t have taken him for the morning person.” 

“He wasn’t waking up, he wanted to eat that pie as dinner.”

Akaashi’s eyes widened. “At 5am?” 

“That’s not even extraordinarily late for him. It happens more often that he eats breakfast with Kuroo and me and then goes to bed. A lot of his fans live in America, so he does the live streams at night,” Bokuto explained and went on listing the pros and cons of basically living with Kenma. Though, he realised it was mostly pros. Having Kenma around somehow made Kuroo a better person and the gamer had a good taste in cereal. The problem was mostly how observant Kenma was and the way he always looked at Bokuto in that weird way whenever he mentioned Akaashi. Though he wouldn’t say that last part out loud to his date. 

“But it’s really fun living with them, I mean, you know Kuroo from the team, he’s the best, even though our neighbours hate him for his loud singing in the shower. And Tsukishima and Yamaguchi actually live in the same building. They come by pretty often. Well, at least they used to...” He grinned as he remembered the fateful evening of truth or dare where Tsukishima admitted to having a slight kink for punishment, him being the submissive one, thus leading to the couple avoiding him and Kuroo whenever possible. 

“You remember them, right? We trained with Tsukishima sometimes during training camps.” Akaashi nodded. “Well, he was really good! He could have joined the college team, actually, but Yamaguchi didn’t want to play that much anymore and apparently, that was enough for Tsukishima to quit volleyball as well. They join us for fun games sometimes though. You should come play with us, too, next time!” 

Bokuto continued talking until the food arrived and only then did he realise that he had taken over the conversation, something he always tried to avoid during dates. 

“Sorry, I’m talking too much.”

“What do you mean?” Akaashi furrowed his brows. “I don’t mind listening to you, though I’d advise you to postpone the ending of that bunny story until you’re done eating. I don’t want to have to use the Heimlich on you.” 

Bokuto took one Maki roll, the safest choice in his opinion. He still didn’t trust this restaurant over his favourite. It was so fancy, he wouldn’t be surprised if they exchanged the rice for quinoa or something weird like that. 

As soon as the sushi touched his tongue though, all of his doubts were swept away. Everything about it was heavenly.The fish tasted fresh, as if it had just come out of the ocean, the rice and seaweed perfectly in balance, some wasabi giving it just the perfect amount of refreshing spiciness. 

“And?” Akaashi grinned. “Best sushi you’ve ever had?” 

A small part of Bokuto urged him to protest, to declare his patriotism to his shabby favourite restaurant, but the bigger part of Bokuto's brain was occupied with joy over the phenomenal taste, wondering if he could ever eat normal sushi again after tasting this. 

“Hmm..” Was his incredibly thoughtful answer to Akaashi’s questions, whose grin only grew winder as he started digging in as well. 

\---

It was dark outside when they finally left the restaurant, at least, as far as it ever got dark in Tokyo. They strolled along the harbour with the loose goal of getting to the subway station, neither of them in a hurry to get there.

“What was your favourite exhibit today?” 

Bokuto kicked a little stone that was in his way into the water as he thought about the answer to that question. He really enjoyed the flowers at the beginning and if the sunset world would have been finished, without the ladders and cables still laying around, it would probably have been his favourite. But as he looked at Akaashi, whose face was just as dimly illuminated by the streetlight as it had been in the crystal room, he remembered his astonished face, his sparkling eyes in there, and the answer was clear. 

“I really liked the flowers, but I think my favourite was the crystal world.” 

“Really?” Akaashi seemed surprised. “I mean, the crystal world was amazing, don't get me wrong, but you seemed so much more excited about the more interactive rooms.” 

Bokuto just shrugged. “What was your favourite?” 

“Well I did like the crystal room, but I guess the flowers were one of my favourites really.” Now it was Bokuto’s turn to be surprised, but Akaashi continued, not leaving Bokuto time to ask why he liked the flowers that much. “The sunset was amazing as well. Suzumeda really created a masterpiece with that one.” He paused, looking at his fingers. “But I guess my favourite was the room with the lamps, you know?” Even in the dim light, Bokuto could see him blush furiously. 

Thinking back to that moment, when their fingers touched first, and Akaashi had just taken his hand so easily, Bokuto smiled. “Yeah, I guess, that one was pretty cool.” 

They continued walking, a little closer than before and just as Bokuto was thinking about taking Akaashi’s hand, the latter brushed his. It seemed a lot more intended than in the museum. As Akaashi’s little finger intertwined with Bokuto’s just like in the museum, Bokuto looked at the man walking next to him. The setter made an effort of looking straight ahead, keeping a poker face. The confidence that always surrounded him with this aura of arrogance was missing, leaving him vulnerable. Bokuto grinned as he realised that he had this effect on the cool, composed, arrogant Akaashi. He broke the bond of their fingers, firmly taking the setter's hand in his. They quietly walked like that for some time, the gurgling water of the harbour partly drowning out the noise of the city. 

“So you never finished that bunny story!”

Bokuto chuckled as Akaashi broke the silence. “Right, the bunny story…”

\---

There was still a slight smile persisting on Bokuto’s lips when he arrived at the apartment two hours later. He and Akaashi had walked around for a lot longer than he had originally anticipated, but their conversations had been too engaging to interrupt by simply going home. Eventually the younger one had seemed tired though, not able to suppress the occasional yawn and Bokuto insisted on getting him to the subway station. There had been a short, awkward moment, where they didn’t know how to say goodbye, but eventually Bokuto simply went for a hug and after a moment of hesitation, Akaashi had actually hugged him back. 

Bokuto felt weird thinking about it now. Not because he didn’t like hugging, but because it had put him in such a good mood. What was it about that? They hadn’t even kissed and Bokuto hugged his friends constantly. So why was it a hug from Akaashi specifically that made him feel so content? Maybe, he reasoned with himself, it was because Akaashi had always been so distant. Bokuto was the captain after all and Akaashi not really trying to fit into the team had always bothered him. So maybe, he thought, the dare wasn’t a bad thing entirely. After all, it would not only bring Yukie back as their team manager, but Bokuto also started feeling more comfortable around his setter, which would benefit the team dynamics for sure. He grinned confidently. There were many reasons why he was the captain and he had once again found one more. 

His smile vanished quickly though, as he opened the door. The living room was slightly foggy, the air thick and warm, smelling like something burned. 

In the midst of it sat Kuroo on the couch, reading some magazine as though nothing was wrong. 

“Hey Bokuto, what’s up?” 

“What’s up?” Bokuto didn’t know how to answer that, storming to the nearest window, to open it. “Why does the apartment smell like that?” 

“Oh yeah,” Kuroo chuckled embarrassed, raking his fingers through his hair, making it even more spiky than it usually was, “I was experimenting a bit and…”

“You  _ what _ ?! I thought we agreed you would leave your chemistry experiments at university after the bunsen burner incident!”

“Geez, relax!” Kuroo got up and walked towards the kitchen where apparently the smoke originated from. “I wasn’t doing chemistry experiments. Well technically I was, since baking and cooking in general requires a lot of chemistry, if you really think about it. Baking powder for example, which makes cakes all nice and fluffy, is really just sodium bicarbonate with a bit of acid, that starts turning into carbon dioxide through the heat and humidity, as the two components react.” He shrugged. “Ok, I realise now that I might have been going against the rules, but I still don’t think we should count baking apple pies as chemistry experiments.” 

Now in the kitchen, Bokuto finally discovered the source of the smell. Next to some apples, flour, and eggs, laid a ball of dough as well as a bowl full of sliced apples. The oven was turned on, apparently a pie baking inside, whereas another pie, if you could actually call it that, stood on top of the stove. It was completely black, resembling a large piece of coal more than anything edible. His roommate caught his glance. 

“Yeah, sorry about that, I fell asleep during the first pie, but the next one is going to be really good, I promise.” 

“Okay…” Bokuto answered hesitantly, still not sure what to do with the situation, but glad there hadn’t actually been a fire. “Why are you baking pie though? You once managed to burn instant ramen…” He grinned at that memory but Kuroo stayed serious. 

“Kenma hasn’t talked to me all day.” He answered. “And he went to his apartment today.” 

For any other couple, that wouldn’t have been weird, but ever since he started studying, Kenma basically lived with them, only visiting his own apartment to get the mail and check up on his one plant. At this point, Bokuto considered the younger man as his flatmate just as much as Kuroo, so he understood why the black haired guy was so worried about it. 

“Because you ate his pie?” 

Kuroo shrugged. “He said our internet connection isn’t fast enough for his streams, but that’s bulshit, it’s always been good enough for him, so far. So I thought he might forgive me if I made him a new apple pie.”

Bokuto had a feeling there was more to the story than just apple pie. Kenma wasn’t that petty, after all, he always tolerated them eating his cereal. 

“Did something else happen with you two?” 

His friend sighed, going back to the living room, Bokuto followed. “I asked him to move in with us,” he explained, as he laid down on the couch. Bokuto took a seat in the armchair, feeling a bit like a therapist talking to his patient. 

He wasn’t surprised by Kuroo’s announcement, even though Kuroo never asked Bokuto formally, his roommate had dropped some hints that he would like his boyfriend to move in officially. Not that Bokuto would mind, while Kenma might not have been paying rent, he bought most of their groceries, sometimes cooking for them as well. He did his fair share cleaning the apartment and frankly, the living room felt empty right now without him sitting in front of the tv, playing some video game. 

“And what did he say to that?” 

“Nothing really. Just said it was late and that I needed to go to sleep. I didn’t really think anything of it, it  _ was  _ late after all.” He paused. “But then he woke me up three hours later, angry because I ate his apple pie, talking about how I could possibly expect us to live with each other if I didn’t respect his boundaries. And suddenly it wasn’t about apple pie anymore, but about things I didn’t even know were an issue in our relationship.” Kuroo’s voice was quiet but strained, Bokuto realised that his friend was barely keeping it together, his eyes already suspiciously red. “And ever since, things have been really weird and I don’t get it! I mean, I always try to give him the space he needs! I know I can be a little too forward and extroverted, but I always thought we kind of completed each other that way, you know?” 

That was exactly how Bokuto had always seen it as well, but just ranting about Kenma and agreeing to everything Kuroo said, like he would with any other friend, wouldn’t cut it here. Their relationship was different from any other couple he knew and he cared about Kenma. So instead, he tried to think of a reason why Kenma was so angry after all. But that turned out to be harder than expected. Even though he had known the younger boy for so long, he still didn’t  _ get  _ him, like Kuroo and Hinata did. But apparently, he didn’t need to, as Kuroo had the same trail of thoughts and started thinking out loud.

“I mean, I guess it’s kind of understandable, we have always been kind of codependent and if he were to move in here, he might feel like he depends too much on me. Like, the apartment would always be a little more mine than his and if things don’t work out, he might be afraid of having to move out.” He paused, changing his tone, as he started arguing with himself. “But that’s stupid, things  _ are _ going to work out, they always have and even if not, I could never just throw him out like that. I can sleep on the couch, I don’t care!” His tone got more thoughtful yet again. “But he’s only 21. I wouldn’t have wanted to commit like that last year, I was just happy with how things were going, still am, to be honest, I just didn’t get why Kenma would pay rent for that fancy apartment when he’s never spending any time there anyways…” 

A sharp ringing interrupted Kuroo’s train of thought, the timer for the pie, and he rushed to the kitchen.

“Aww that one’s perfect!,” he shouted, prompting Bokuto to get up and follow him to the kitchen as well. 

The pie was by far better than the black block that Kuroo disposed of in the trash before taking the freshly baked one out of the oven. The crust had that perfect gold-brown colour, and the smell of the filling, fruity with a hint of cinnamon quickly started drowning out the smell of the burned pie. 

Bokuto felt his mouth watering. “Can I try a piece of that or is it all for Kenma?” 

Kuroo pulled off his baking gloves. “Be my guest, I have enough ingredients for at least two more pies anyways. But it has to cool off a bit, first.” 

Bokuto returned to the living room, as his friend continued working on the next pie in the kitchen. He looked at his phone. 

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

12:04 am

Hey, I hope you got home well. Thank you again for the nice evening.

Bokuto smiled. The chats between Akaashi and him so far had always been just Bokuto giving him info about volleyball practice every other week and the setter giving him one-syllable answers. This was the first time he had ever texted first, and it wasn’t even about volleyball. 

From: Kotarou Bokuto

12:36 am

Aww you don’t have to thank me for that, I really had fun today!! I got home safely, hope you did too? 

From: Kotarou Bokuto

12:37 am

And now I’m getting treated to apple pie as a midnight snack :D

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

12:40 am

Hopefully not Kenma’s again??

Bokuto grinned, it irked him to tell Akaashi about the real reason for the fight, but he knew that kind of gossiping could hurt his friendship with Kuroo, after he had just trusted him with all of that. Even though he didn’t take Akaashi for the kind of person that would start going around, telling everyone about other people’s relationship secrets. 

From: Kotarou Bokuto 

12:41 am

dw, it’s all legal

From: Kotarou Bokuto

12:41 am

Though Kuroo might go to prison for attempted arson, I haven’t decided that yet xD

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

12:42

wait what?!

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

12:43

And who still uses xD? I won’t lie, I’m disappointed.

Bokuto snorted. 

“What’s up?” He hadn’t noticed Kuroo coming back in, but now his friend stood next to him with two plates in his hands, shamelessly staring at Bokuto’s screen. 

“Aw, you’re texting with Akaashi” He winked at him. “You haven’t told me about the date yet.” 

“Wait a second,” Bokuto looked at his phone. “I need to answer him first.” 

From: Kotarou Bokuto 

12:45

xD xD xD the human disaster that is my roommate tried baking apple pie and the first one nearly burned down the apartment lol xD xD xD

“Hey!” Kuroo still stared at the phone. “You don’t always have to exaggerate like that. I study chemistry, I  _ know  _ how long it takes for a cake to self-ignite and it wasn’t even close to it.” He handed Bokuto one of the plates. “And apart from that, could a human disaster create something this delicious?”

Bokuto took a bite of the pie and had to agree with his friend. The apple pie  _ was _ amazing, the sour sweetness of the apples perfectly balanced with the cinnamon, the crust just as crispy as its brown-golden colour promised. 

After a few bites and compliments to his friend, he started telling him about the date, not leaving out a detail. 

“Wait, so you’re telling me, you walked through Tokyo at night, holding hands for  _ hours _ and you didn’t kiss him?”

Bokuto frowned. “You know the third date isn’t for kisses.” 

Kuroo rolled his eyes. “I think I remember you saying that the dating routine didn’t work for Akaashi. So why not kiss him? I mean, you had the most romantic time, that would justify a kiss in my opinion!” 

Bokuto blushed. “We hugged before I left him at the train station though.” He still felt weirdly excited thinking about it. He had had third dates that ended in mind blowing sex and yet none of them had left him with such a good feeling even hours later. 

“I don’t know, is it weird that I feel so good with him?” 

He expected Kuroo to make fun of him, but the middle blocker just smiled.

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

12:46 am

I’m just going to pretend you didn’t just harass me with those weird smileys and go to bed. Good night

From: Kotarou Bokuto

1:33 am

Good night and sleep well, my favourite setter ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I have no idea where this whole Kuroo/Kenma drama is going and why it's taking up so much of the story rn, but I'm slowly figuring it out lol. Hope you liked the chapter. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!


	7. Coffee and Movies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, so this took a week longer than expected, but in return, the chapter is a bit longer than usual, it just didn't feel right to post it in two parts. I kind of like this lenght though and as long as is works with the plot, I'm going to stay with that, which means in return, that the updates are going to be less often (about every two weeks instead of once a week, but I won't promise anything, bc the next three weeks are going to be hell (lol) and I really don't know how much writing I'll get done in that time).  
> Anyways, thank you all so much for your comments and kudos (150 wtf?!), I do hope you'll enjoy this chapter!

It wasn’t that Akaashi necessarily cared about coffee, it always tasted the same to him anyways. It was more that he couldn’t bring himself to care about anything else if he hadn’t had his coffee in the morning. 

He usually went with a simple black cup of coffee, no milk, no sugar, no other special ingredients like some kind of syrup, whipped cream, or sprinkles on top. It wasn’t that he liked the black coffee. It tasted bitter and left him with bad breath that he had to fight with minty bubblegum, but it gave him the daily dose of caffeine he needed and he liked how it made him feel like some classic writer. Like some character from Kill Your Darlings, who for breakfast would have black coffee, a cigarette and melancholy. It was stupid, he knew, and that was why he just pretended to like his coffee black. 

Though, he had to admit the vanilla latte Bokuto had gotten for him that one time didn’t taste all that bad. He even found himself ordering the drink again the next day, because the sweet taste overpowering the bitterness of the coffee kind of reminded him of Bokuto and his ridiculous, ever-smiling face. 

Not that he would ever say that out loud. 

\---

The next morning, Bokuto could barely keep his eyes open. He had stayed awake with Kuroo until three AM eating pie, or in Kuroo’s case, baking pie and talking for hours. Kuroo had done the one reasonable thing this morning, which was to call in sick for practice, but Bokuto, as the captain, couldn’t do that, especially not with the practice match coming up on Sunday. 

Instead of going to the gym directly, though, he decided to give the cafeteria a short visit to get some coffee that would help him get through the morning. As he arrived at the line in front of the coffee bar, he realised the person standing in front of him was Akaashi, listening to music on his headphones. 

He tapped him on the shoulder and the setter turned around, a little startled. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Bokuto grinned at him brightly. Suddenly, he felt more energetic than before. “Whatcha doin’ here?” 

Akaashi looked at him with a straight face. “Getting coffee, like everyone else.” 

Bokuto’s smile faltered. Back to the weird, unapproachable Akaashi. What happened to the nice one from yesterday? But Bokuto was too tired to try and start a one sided conversation with the setter. So they just stood in the line quietly for some time, until Akaashi spoke up again. 

“Sorry, I didn’t want to be mean, I’m just not really a morning person.” He fumbled with his fingers. “I promise, I’m a lot nicer after I’ve had my first coffee. 

Bokuto smiled again as Akaashi gave the barista his order. Looking at him with dark circles under his eyes, he realised that he couldn’t have gotten too much sleep last night either, being on the date with Bokuto. And he had to admit, there was something endearing about these slightly sleepy eyes of the setter, hair still messy like he had just gotten out of bed.

“Hey, Bokuto!” He snapped out of it, realising he had been staring at Akaashi way too obviously, both the setter and the barista having noticed it. 

“Huh?” 

“I asked what you wanted to get.” 

“Oh,” Bokuto turned to the girl at the register, “Could you make me a vanilla latte, but like, with four espresso shots?” She nodded, shouting the order to her colleague. 

“That’s too much caffeine for one person,” Akaashi muttered. “That’s not healthy.” 

“Ugh shut up Mr. I-drink-my-coffee-black-no-milk-no-sugar!” 

Akaashi smiled slightly. “I think I like you more when you’ve had enough sleep.” 

“Mean!” Bokuto pouted, though he knew Akaashi was right. He just wasn’t the kind of person that could live on two hours of sleep. Trying to be a little more cheerful, to not scare Akaashi off, he tried to make conversation. “What were you listening to?” He pointed towards Akaashi’s headphones.” 

“Claire de lune.” 

Bokuto was curious. “Never heard of her. Can I listen?” 

For some reason, Akaashi seemed to find that amusing, but he handed the headphones to Bokuto nevertheless. Bokuto was surprised by the soft piano sounds, not expecting classical music and even less expecting himself to like it that much, but it fit his tired mood perfectly, feeling comforting somehow. 

“That’s really good! Can you send me the name of it again?” Their coffees were done by the time the song ended and they were now making their way to the gym. 

“Sure.” Akaashi smiled, his phone already in hand to text Bokuto. 

Bokuto’s mood had improved drastically after his first sip of coffee and he started chatting to Akaashi happily again, telling him about the delicious apple pie in every detail. 

“And I mean, it was Kuroo’s first time baking and even though that first apple pie didn’t work out at all, the second one might have been the best I’ve ever had!”

“You need to stop talking about it like that, now I’m hungry!”

“Oh no, I’m sorry, what part was it that made you jealous of my apple pie? The crispy crust, the cinnamon, or the perfect filling that was still warm?,” he teased Akaashi. 

“Ugh stop it, I want apple pie!” 

“Well,” Bokuto paused, thinking about his spontaneous idea for a second, before saying it out loud, “why don’t you come by this evening, then?

“Huh?” 

Bokuto shrugged. “Kuroo made like four pies yesterday and even though Kenma sure loves apple pie, he won’t be able to eat all of them. We could just watch TV and eat pie or something. It’ll be nice!”

“Sure...” Akaashi answered slowly as he held the door to the gym open. “It’ll be nice.” 

They were greeted by the rest of the team in the changing room. Most of them had already changed, waiting to get started. They were late. 

“I’ll text you about it later today, okay?” Bokuto shouted over his shoulder, as he made his way to his locker, seeing neither the confused faces of his teammates, nor the faint blush on Akaashi’s cheeks. 

\---

“I have absolutely no idea how anyone could eat that.” Yukie stared down at her noodles, full of hate. “I mean, if this is supposed to be tomato sauce, then why does it taste like plastic?” 

Bokuto didn’t answer her, too busy wolfing down his own noodles. After too little sleep, practice and two extremely tedious hours of pedagogy he couldn’t care less about how his food tasted, as long as he could eat it. And Yukie  _ always _ complained about cafeteria food anyways. 

She looked at him with a judgingly. “You know, this has basically no nutritional value whatsoever? Like, how can they even sell this as food?” 

“Well,” Bokuto realised he was talking with a full mouth, finished chewing and swallowed his food before he continued, “it’s still better than eating nothing at all.” His plate was already empty and he couldn’t help but stare at Yukie’s. “So you won’t finish that?” 

Yukie shook her head. “Help yourself, I’ll eat something else once I’m home.”

They sat in silence for some time, Bokuto continued eating while Yukie texted someone on her phone. Their table was unusually empty. Their lunch break was earlier than average, most of their friends were still in class, but normally at least Kuroo would join them on Fridays, sometimes with Kenma, if he bothered to come to uni that day at all. 

“You wanna do something tonight?” Yukie asked him casually. “We haven’t really gone out in weeks.” It was true, their evening of playing truth or dare had been the last time they all hung out together. 

“Can’t,” Bokuto shook his head, “Akaashi’s coming over in the evening.” 

“Oulala!” Yukie put away her phone, suddenly giving him her undivided attention. “Tell me more!” 

He shrugged. “He’s just coming over. We’re going to eat pie and watch TV, chill stuff, you know?” 

“Mhm…” Yukie grinned. “Netflix and chill, sounds nice.” 

Bokuto made a face. “Not like that! We’re not there yet!” He paused, realising he had never imagined doing anything more with Akaashi than just kissing him. A sudden wave of guilt hit him. “I actually don’t even know if I want to go there if it’s just a dare. That would kind of make me feel like a…” he trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence, but Yukie seemed to understand and changed the topic.

“So not tonight then, how about saturday?” 

Bokuto felt bad for saying no yet again, but with the match on Sunday he couldn’t go out the evening before. “Sunday after the match? You could join us for our victory dinner and the team could get used to you again.” He winked at her. 

“Still as optimistic as always, I see. Doesn’t Chiba have Sakusa and Hoshiumi?” 

“Yes, and now also Kageyama.”

Yukie let out a breath. “That’s three players that have already played in the national team!”

Bokuto groaned. “The junior team, that’s not  _ that  _ impressive! I’ve been there, too!”

“On the bench.” 

“Why do I want you as our manager again? You don’t even believe in us!”

Yukie shrugged. “I’m just being realistic.” 

“I’ll show you!” Bokuto was starting to feel more awake, as his competitive side started coming to the surface. 

They continued bickering until it was time for their biology class and started packing up. Just as they were about to leave, Bokuto recognised Kenma coming towards the table. Even though Kenma never really looked extremely happy to be at university, he had never seen the younger guy like this. He had dark circles under his eyes, his face paler than usual, a slight frown on his face. 

“Kenma!” Yukie sounded surprised. “What are you doing here?” 

“I study here.” Neither of them bought it.

“You come here two times a week, max, only to see Hinata or Kuroo.” Yukie called him out. She obviously didn’t know about the fight. 

“I was looking for Kuroo, but he wasn’t at class today.” Kenma’s voice was thin, even quieter than usual. Bokuto exchanged a look with Yukie, who was starting to look concerned.

“He couldn’t come today, but I think he wanted to come by your place later today.” Bokuto tried to let his voice sound as comforting and optimistic as possible.

“Oh…” Kenma seemed to relax a little, but tensed up again right away. “Why couldn’t he come? He wouldn’t miss organic chemistry just like that! Is he sick?” 

“No, don’t worry, he just didn’t get much sleep last night.” 

Kenma seemed to understand. After all, judging by his appearance, his boyfriend hadn’t been the only one losing sleep last night. 

“We need to go now, but…” Bokuto carefully patted Kenma’s shoulder, knowing he wouldn’t appreciate anything more physical like a hug, “It’s going to be alright, you two just need to talk. Go home and sleep a bit, you need it!”

\---

Bokuto tried to pay attention to the professor, he really did, but his sleep deprivation combined with his caffeine overdose in the morning finally caught up to him during the afternoon lecture. On one hand, everything seemed to go in slow motion, his eyes constantly falling closed if he didn’t concentrate enough on keeping them open, on the other hand, his heart was racing, giving him the urge to just move. After a glance at Yukie’s perfect notes that he could probably copy before the next test, he finally found himself following his own advice to Kenma and fell asleep, while the professor talked about apoptotic pathways. 

When Yukie woke him up at the end of the lecture, he felt refreshed and ready for the Friday afternoon training. The team wasn’t complete when he arrived. Kuroo wasn’t there, of course, Yaku and a few of the other older players were missing as well, along with, to Bokuto’s displeasure, Akaashi. 

It wasn’t unusual that they were so few. The afternoon training was voluntary after all, and mostly just for the players to optimise their individual techniques instead of team tactics.

Without Akaashi, Bokuto trained with Takema, a first year setter who spent most of his time on the bench. He was still missing a lot of confidence, but he did have talent and the eagerness that was needed to get from the bench to a starting position. They trained some basic tossing techniques just getting more used to each other. Hinata joined them later, and they practised a few quicks until they decided to practice their serves. Bokuto mostly watched them doing so and gave them a few tips to improve their posture and ball control. He himself only did a few serves, before he went on to check on the other teammates, giving feedback and praises. 

He liked these training sessions when the team spirit wasn’t the most important thing, but the individuals got to train and improve their skills. Hinata, who could barely do a jumping serve at the beginning of the year, was getting better at it each and every day, even going on to practice more advanced techniques like jump floaters. Aki, one of the two younger substitute liberos, was fine-tuning his tossing technique with a middle blocker spiking these tosses. The gym was filled with a relaxed but concentrated atmosphere. Seeing as he had already talked to everyone and the players were all doing fine, Bokuto allowed himself to get his phone and check it for messages. 

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

3:05 pm

Sorry, I won’t make it to afternoon practice, I needed some sleep. 

Bokuto smiled a little as he typed out an answer. He hadn’t expected Akaashi to excuse his absence.

From: Kotarou Bokuto

3:53 pm

dw not much going on today anyways, are you still coming over later, though?

Another text went out to his roommate.

From: Kotarou Bokuto

3:54 pm

what’s up rooster, did you already talk to Kenma? Met him at the cafeteria earlier, he was looking for you

From: Kotarou Bokuto

3:54 pm

btw, Akaashi’s coming by later, could you leave some pie for us??^^

He put away his phone and went back to the other players to practice his serves some more.

From: Kuroo (Nekoma)

4:35 pm

Going over to Kenma’s rn, hope he likes the pie, left one for you and loverboy, but you have to clean up the kitchen in return

From: Akaashi (volleyball)

4:48 pm

Yup still coming over, 7pm right?

From: Kuroo (Nekoma)

5:53 pm

Kenma likes the pie, will probably stay for the night, so you and Akaashi can do whatever you want ;)

From: Kuroo (Nekoma)

5:54 pm

but don’t be too loud, the neighbours already hate us

From: Kuroo (Nekoma)

5:54 pm

and use protection!!

Kuroo not being there for the evening relieved Bokuto for two reasons. For one he was glad his friends seemed to have talked it out, but he was also glad Kuroo wouldn’t be there when Akaashi came over. Even though those two were on the same team, Bokuto doubted Kuroo would act normally with Akaashi when he was on their couch instead of the court. If Bokuto had to decide between introducing his boyfriends to his parents or his roommate he wasn’t sure he would choose his best friend, who somehow was even more talented at bringing up embarrassing stories from the past than Bokuto’s mother.

Looking at the apartment, he realised there was still a lot to be done before Akaashi arrived. Cleaning the kitchen took up most of his time as Kuroo had made no effort whatsoever to leave his working place clean. The flour he had used had not only gone into the mixing bowl but somehow even as far as the kitchen door, the dishes had to be done and the apple peels had landed anywhere but near the trash. The rest of the apartment wasn’t really looking a lot better. The couch cushions were all crinkled up, some of them laying around on the floor instead of the couch, crumbs on the armchair and the floor reminded of their midnights snack, a huge stain on the carpet of Bokuto’s meatball-accident a few weeks ago and he didn’t even want to start thinking about the tons of dirty laundry laying around in the bathroom and his own room. 

Usually, Bokuto didn’t mind a little chaos, but Akaashi didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would be impressed by a messy apartment. Looking at his watch, he realised he didn’t have a lot of time left, and started to arrange the cushions orderly, moving the armchair to cover the stain and vacuuming as fast as he could. He picked up the laundry, starting the washing machine with the first load and putting away the rest of it in a laundry basket. He made up his bed, trying to get the wrinkles out of the duvet and tried to make his desk look more orderly in the short time he had. It wasn’t that he expected anything to happen in his bedroom tonight, but there was no need to risk anything by leaving his bedroom in its current state, right?

Five minutes before Akaashi was supposed to arrive, Bokuto collapsed onto the couch, exhausted by the impromptu spring-cleaning, only to jolt up again, as he realised he hadn’t taken a shower yet and was still in his sweaty training gear. He hurried into the shower, not giving himself the time to wait for the warm water to come out of the pipes. After a record time in the shower he was done, just at the right time, as it seemed. The doorbell rang. Akaashi was early, but Bokuto stayed calm, pressing the buzzer to let the setter into the building. Akaashi still needed to come up the stairs, which left Bokuto with plenty time to get dressed. But apparently, his date had other plans. The doorbell rang again and Bokuto realised that it wasn’t the ringing that announced somebody waiting at the main entrance of the building, but the one that came when somebody was already in front of the apartment door. 

Somehow Akaashi had gotten into the building without help and was now a door away from Bokuto, waiting for him to let him in. Bokuto, who had just gotten out of the shower, standing naked in the living room with nothing but a towel. But he couldn’t just go to his room and get dressed first, the bell had already rang twice. Tentatively, he walked towards the door and opened it.

For a moment, they just stood in front of each other quietly, taking in the sight of each other. Akaashi was dressed up as always, pastel blue button up combined with beige pants. He didn’t seem as tired as he had in the morning, the dark circles beneath his eyes were gone, apparently he had really used his time to sleep. There was some weird expression on his face that Bokuto couldn’t quite decipher. His eyes ran up and down Bokuto’s body, making him all the more aware of his skimpy attire. 

“Hey, so…” Bokuto grinned sheepishly, as he gestured to Akaashi to come in.

“...you’re early,” he finally finished his sentence after a few seconds of awkward silence. “Sorry, my time management is kind of bad,” he continued as Akaashi stayed still, obviously judging Bokuto for trying to put the blame on his visitor, “totally forgot to shower after practice and Kuroo didn’t clean up the kitchen.” 

He gestured towards the sofa. “Uhm, make yourself comfortable while I’m going to get dressed. You can look for a movie you want to watch or something, I’m open for anything really, but maybe nothing too scary.” He took the tv remote, turned on the tv and started going through their options on netflix. “I like action movies too, but I’m not really in a mood for violence right now,” he stopped at the section with the romcoms. “A romcom would be cool, too, though they always have too much unnecessary conflict and don’t get happy until the very end. But please pick a movie with a happy ending, I don’t feel like I’m ready to cry in front of you yet.”

Akaashi interrupted his ramblings: “I’ve seen you cry twice during our last tournament alone, so it’s a little too late to worry about that now.” He settled into the couch and gestured towards the remote. “Give me that and get dressed. As far as I remember, Netflix and chill starts with both parties fully clothed.” 

“Akaashi!” Bokuto spluttered, feeling the blood rush to his head. “You can’t say something like that, I didn’t even…” he stopped talking, as he discovered the mischievous glint in Akaashi’s eyes. “Don’t mess with me like that!”

“Then get dressed already!” 

Bokuto turned around and went to his room, closing the door behind him. A look in the mirror revealed how red his ears had gotten. Why did everyone, including Akaashi, believe he only invited him to make out? 

Hurriedly, he got dressed, putting on sweatpants and his favourite T-Shirt with an owl motif. He hesitated before styling his hair with hair wax, well knowing it would look stupid in the morning if it didn’t get washed out, but not wanting to present himself to Akaashi with his boring flat natural hair. 

When he got back, Akaashi was sitting on the couch kind of formally, back straight, ignoring the backrest, hands in his lap, fingers fiddling. Was he nervous? Bokuto put on his brightest smile and plopped down next to Akaashi. 

“So what are we watching?”

Akaashi turned to look at him. “Your hair is up again.” It was barely a statement, though Bokuto felt like it sounded a little disappointed. 

“Well yeah… You’re here in a button up and stuff, the least I could do was make sure my hair looks presentable…” He looked at the screen, recognising the white letters on purple background of the paused intro. “Wait, I’m not watching Barney and Friends with you, I’m not five.” 

Akaashi smirked. “Well you didn’t want anything scary, nothing with too much conflict, no action and a happy end so this was the only option left.” 

Bokuto made a face at him and attempted to grab the tv remote, but Akaashi was quick to lift his arm. 

“Akaashi,” Bokuto whined. “Give me the remote, I’m not watching Barney and Friends! I always get the song stuck in my head for the whole week! Do you really want to listen to me singing all week?” 

Akaashi hesitated. “Well, what do you want to watch, then? The barbie movie? Spongebob?” 

“Ugh fine,” Bokuto crossed his arms sulkily, “choose a horror movie with conflict and a sad ending.” 

The setter grinned as he exited the show back to the main menu and chose a movie he had already searched for. 

“The mummy? Are you serious? I mean, I told you I was alright with a horror movie, but mummies are a bit too much, don’t you think?”

Akaashi grinned. “Aww is little Bokuto scared?” 

“No way! I’m- I’m just…” Bokuto trailed off, well knowing he  _ was _ scared. 

“Don’t worry, it’s really not that scary, it actually has many funny moments.” Akaashi carefully placed his hand above Bokuto’s. “And a happy ending with a cute romance,” he added as he realised Bokuto was still not convinced. 

“If I get nightmares, I’m blaming you,” Bokuto said, trying to sound miffy, though the hopeful smile on Akaashi’s face was enough to convince him.

“Sure you will.”

Bokuto smelled his chance. “And if it gets too scary, I can snuggle up to you!” 

Akaashi hesitated and bit his lip before he answered. “You can snuggle up to me now, if you want to.”

“Akaashi!!” Bokuto grinned brightly as he teased the setter. “Did you just make a move on me?” 

Akaashi scoffed. “You wish! I was just saying that because the opening scene is kind of brutal.”

“Ok…” Bokuto couldn’t help but be disappointed and decided he wouldn’t try and cuddle with Akaashi. At least for now.

In the end, the movie wasn’t as bad as expected. Sure, Bokuto was scared at first but Akaashi helped by constantly commenting on the movie, pointing out bad cgi and the hilarious aspects of the scary scenes and after some time, Bokuto started joining him. 

“Why is this so funny?” He asked Akaashi between two laughing fits as one of the characters got eaten by scarabs. “This is so horrifying and I’m laughing!” 

Akaashi was laughing as well. “That’s the beauty of the movie. The plot is kinda good, but whenever it gets serious, it just seems ridiculous.”

They didn’t end up cuddling during the movie, though they did get more comfortable with each other. Bokuto hadn’t even realised how tense he had been sitting on the couch, careful not to intrude Akaashi’s personal space, until Akaashi changed his position on the couch, putting his feet up to sit cross-legged. His knee was suddenly touching Bokuto’s thigh. They had held hands all evening the other day, but this was different. This was Bokuto’s apartment, everything happening in here, every move suddenly seemed a lot more intimate and meaningful. It took the ace a good minute to get used to the feeling of Akaashi’s knee against his thigh until he could focus on the movie again. With that, though, the invisible line on the couch between him and Akaashi started disappearing and Bokuto got more and more relaxed, only now realising how awkward he had felt before. And when Akaashi decided to spook him during one of the suspenseful scenes, he didn’t even hesitate to playfully punch him in the arm. The setter just laughed at that and seemed extremely pleased with himself. They continued like that, making fun of the movie, teasing each other when one got too nervous during the scary scenes and only realised as the film credits appeared on the screen, that they still hadn’t eaten the pie. 

Bokuto got up to go to the kitchen and Akaashi attempted to follow his example to help, but Bokuto stopped him. “You can wait here, I’ll get it.” 

In the kitchen, Bokuto got the two nicest plates he and Kuroo owned. White porcelain with flowers. His mother had gifted them those as they moved in, though admittedly they had not once used them since. They always seemed too fancy for their cheap, greasy college student meals. 

He put a big piece of pie on each of the plates. Deciding they seemed too empty like that, though, he got one of the apples Kuroo hadn’t used yet, carved a few slices and arranged them next to the pie. Still not nice enough. He suddenly got an idea and opened the freezer. Jackpot! He got the vanilla ice cream and put a scoop of it on the plates as well. He furrowed his brows. The ice cream looked kind of messy, but it would taste good. The question was just if Akaashi would think the same. 

“Looks very good!” 

Bokuto turned around, startled to find the setter looking over his shoulder right behind him. There was barely any space between them and for a moment, Bokuto’s mind stopped working, his thoughts, lost somewhere between those dark eyes and the awareness of the overwhelming vicinity. They held eye contact for a few seconds before Akaashi’s eyes darted down to Bokuto’s lips only to shoot back up again right away. He took a step back and cleared his throat, bringing Bokuto out of his daze and back to reality. He couldn’t help but be disappointed the moment had been over so quick.

“I, uhm… I was wondering if you had anything to drink?” 

“Sure,” Bokuto walked over to the fridge. “We’ve got some coke, apple juice, I could also make tea?” He looked at Akaashi over his shoulder. “Or would you like anything alcoholic, we’ve got some wine left and… uh here, also beer.” 

“Just water’s fine for now.” 

“Uhm… we don’t have any bottled water, is tap water alright?” 

“Sure.” 

They eventually got back to the living room and left the tv turned off as they ate, sitting down on the couch cross legged so that they could look at each other while eating. 

Bokuto paid close attention to Akaashi, not wanting to miss the joy on his face after the first bite. 

“Do I have something on my face?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“You’re staring at me.” Akaashi furrowed his brows. “In a weird way.” 

“I’m not,” Bokuto defended himself, though he realised he might have been staring at Akaashi a little too obviously. Hurriedly, he lowered his eyes to look on his own plate. Carefully, he looked up again, after a few seconds, as Akaashi finally tried his first bite. He seemed pleased with it. His furrowed brows relaxed, he closed his eyes and hummed a little in approval. 

“So it’s good?” 

Akaashi opened his eyes again and took a moment to swallow before answering. “Yes, very.” 

Bokuto beamed at him, pleased for Kuroo’s sake that Akaashi enjoyed the pie so much and that he, Bokuto, hadn’t oversold it.

“What are you so happy for, you didn’t even bake it yourself?” Akaashi seemed confused. 

Bokuto shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I be? You’re happy because you’re eating a delicious apple pie, Kuroo’s going to be happy when I tell him you liked his pie and I’m happy when the people around me are happy.” He grinned even wider. “So everybody’s happy, isn’t that cool?” 

Akaashi didn’t answer, but he smiled ever so slightly. 

For a while both of them stayed quiet as they ate. 

“Where’s Kuroo by the way? I thought he was your roommate?” 

“Over at Kenma’s, making amends for the stolen pie.” Bokuto let his thoughts wander for a short moment. He didn’t like that two of his best friends were fighting like this, if you could even call it that. Kenma had looked so tired earlier and he had never seen Kuroo so confused and sad before yesterday. The text the middle blocker sent him made him feel some hope, though he had a weird feeling, whatever Kenma had been going on about could not be completely resolved by just a pie. 

Bokuto shook his head, trying to get rid of these thoughts. Sure, he cared about his friends, but Kuroo and Kenma had been together for years and he was sure they would be able to talk it out. He didn’t need to worry about them now, he had Akaashi sitting right in front of him, that was what he should be focused on.

“So what’s your favourite movie? You can’t tell me it’s actually the mummy.” 

If Akaashi was surprised by the sudden change of topic, he didn’t let it show. He stayed quiet for a second before he answered. “I don’t know actually, it totally depends on the mood, what kind of genre I want to watch.”

“Not Harry Potter?,” Bokuto asked, remembering the painting with the reading girl. 

“No!” Akaashi nearly shouted and seemed surprised by it himself. “I mean, the movies are alright, don’t get me wrong, the cast is pretty good, but they’re not half as good as the books.” 

“Oh, ok…” Bokuto suddenly felt stupid for bringing it up. He still had only watched the movies, which he had found pretty good. He had asked Yukie for the books a week ago already, but they were still lying next to his bed, untouched. It simply took too much concentration, too much time where you had to sit still, for him to start reading. 

“And even the books,” Akaashi continued, “aren’t my favourites anymore. But I loved them as a kid, now it’s more the emotional attachment… you know, why I like them so much.” 

They stayed quiet for a moment, before Akaashi spoke up once again: “What’s your favourite movie, Bokuto?” 

Their conversation turned into some kind of question round, Bokuto asked questions that Akaashi answered, only to ask the same question in return. Sometimes they would discuss the answer a little more in length, for example when they realised they both loved winter sports, but had very different definitions of it. Bokuto was a proud snowboarder whereas Akaashi preferred skiing.

“Skiing is so basic, though!” 

“Skiing is elegant, Snowboarding is mainstream.” 

“Yeah, it’s mainstream because it’s cool?! Do you even know how dangerous skiing is? You can hurt your knee in the worst ways possible, that stuff doesn’t happen on a snowboard!”

Akaashi scoffed. “Yeah right, instead you constantly fall on your hands, possibly breaking your wrist which leaves you unable to play volleyball for weeks. Thought you would know better than that.” 

The bickering continued for a bit, until they made plans to just go skiing, or well, snowboarding together next winter, to show each other what was truly the better sport.

Bokuto found out a few other things about Akaashi, like how his favourite colour was yellow, his favourite animals were seagulls and he always wanted to climb mount fuji but had never done it so far.

“Let’s do it together some time,” Bokuto proposed. “I’ve never been up there either.” He laughed as he thought about it. “It’s funny, Hinata and Kageyama went there the first weekend they moved into the area and we, who’ve lived here our whole lives, have never been.” 

Maybe he was making too many plans, he knew this was a dare and when Akaashi found out, Bokuto doubted he would still want to go skiing or to mount fuji, but a small part of him still hoped they would one day be able to do these things nevertheless. He had fun with Akaashi and wanted to spend time with him, dare or not. 

After a while, they decided to watch ‘The Mummy Returns’ though Akaashi warned that it wasn’t as good as the first part. Bokuto had to agree half an hour into the movie, though that only meant they could talk to each other more while watching.

After the movie was over, they decided to just put on the third part of the trilogy, though Bokuto was really starting to feel the tiredness in his bones. The night had been short, the day long, with volleyball practice in the morning and the afternoon and apart from his biology class, Bokuto hadn’t gotten any additional rest. 

Without really thinking about it, he leaned his head towards Akaashi to rest on his shoulder. For a second he felt Akaashi tense up, but before he could sit back up to give the setter space, Akaashi relaxed and even put an arm around Bokuto’s shoulder.

“Hm…” Bokuto sighed contently, enjoying the closeness and warmth that came with it. The problem was, though, that the warmth from Akaashi’s embrace made him realise how cold his feet were getting. Lazily, he reached for a blanket from the backrest and draped it over both him and Akaashi. Slowly he felt himself drifting away again and again, only to be woken up by some loud special effect. 

“I can turn it off, if you want to,”Akaashi offered. 

“It’s ok.. I’m still watching.” 

“Sure you are,” Akaashi chuckled quietly as he reached for the remote to turn down the volume. 

Bokuto couldn’t remember a lot after that. At some point he woke up because the movie was over, though Akaashi next to him didn’t make a move to turn off the tv. When Bokuto looked, he realised the setter had fallen asleep as well. Contently, he drifted back to sleep, some tiny part of his brain wondered if he should maybe go to bed instead of sleeping on the couch, or wake up Akaashi to let him go home, but he felt way too comfortable to do any of that.

\---

“Aww… young love...”

It was Kuroo’s voice that woke him up. Bokuto didn’t remember how they got from a sitting position into a horizontal position and he honestly couldn’t understand how they had both fit on the couch and how it had somehow been comfortable enough to sleep well. He didn’t remember Akaashi placing another blanket on them, but when he woke up, it was there.

Akaashi was still asleep and Bokuto tried to keep it that way. He carefully slipped out from under his arm and placed the blankets back on top of the setter orderly so he wouldn't get cold. Only after he was sure Akaashi was still fast asleep, he turned around to his roommate who stood at the entrance to the kitchen, a cup of coffee in hand. 

“Morning, Kuroo…” He walked into the kitchen to see if Kuroo made enough coffee for him to drink as well. 

“Did you have a nice time yesterday?” Kuroo’s teasing voice suggested that he expected Bokuto to have had much more than just a nice time with Akaashi.

“It was nice.” Bokuto tried to keep his voice as neutral as his statement, though he couldn’t suppress a smile. He had felt good, he still did, though he would have preferred waking up by himself, not with Kuroo’s help. That way he might have been able to enjoy Akaashi’s presence a bit more, maybe doze off once again in his embrace. But seeing as Kuroo was already teasing him now, he didn’t even want to imagine how bad it would be if he had given in to his desires in front of Kuroo. Bokuto looked out the window. It was already getting bright outside, but the sun wasn’t out yet. Bokuto didn’t have a watch on him, but it couldn’t be later than six in the morning. He looked back at Kuroo.

“Didn’t you want to stay over at Kenma’s?”

“I did.”

“So why are you here then?”

“I have a tutoring appointment later.”

“Then why didn’t you go there directly instead of waking up at what? Five AM?”

“Five thirty,” Kuroo groaned, obviously annoyed by himself. “I didn’t have any clothes to change into at Kenma’s place, so I needed to come here first. I mean, it’s not like I could just borrow clothes from Kenma.”

Bokuto had to grin from the thought of Kuroo trying to fit into one of Kenma’s T-Shirt’s.

“Why not? If anyone can pull off going cropped, it’s you, Kuroo-kun.” He winked at Kuroo who answered by blowing him a kiss. They grinned at each other and for a moment, they just stood in the kitchen, a last trace of their smile still on their lips enjoying their coffee, the quiet morning and their company.

“So you two made up?”

“Hm, I guess so,” Kuroo smiled tentatively. “He won’t move in with us, that’s for sure, and he doesn’t want us to move in with each other yet.” He shrugged. “But I honestly couldn’t care less about that as long as we’re okay again.” 

“And you are?” 

“Oh yeah we are…” Kuroo’s smile got more confident as he raised his eyebrows and shot Bokuto a suggestive look.

Bokuto laughed. “Ok, I don’t need to know the details, thank you.” He paused and continued a bit more seriously: “I'm glad you two made up though.” 

Kuroo’s expression grew soft. “Me too…” He took one last sip of his coffee before he put the mug into the sink, obviously not planning on cleaning it at the moment. 

“So tell me how yesterday went. You looked quite comfortable with each other on that couch.” 

“Hmm… we watched The Mummy, he liked your pie and it really  _ was  _ comfortable on the couch.” 

Kuroo grinned. “No way, he got you to watch The Mummy? Must be true love! I’ve been trying to get you to watch that movie with me for years!” 

“It was good,” Bokuto admitted. “I might actually start watching horror movies with you, now that I’ve already watched three of them I think I’m ready for Saw or whatever.”

Kuroo looked at him for a moment before he laughed. “The mummy is not a horror movie, you know that right?” Bokuto didn’t. How scary were actual horror movies then?

He changed the topic. “Anyways, it was really cool, though I’m really starting to feel bad here.” He lowered his voice, afraid Akaashi might already be awake and hear them talk from the living room. “I mean, I’m doing all of this for a dare. I’m enjoying it all way too much and whenever I think about eventually telling Akaashi all about it, I start feeling really sick.”

“Then don’t.”

Bokuto blinked. “What?”

“Don’t tell him. You like hanging out with him, he seems to feel good with you, too, judging by how close you were on the couch earlier… Why destroy all of that with the truth?”

“I can’t keep lying to him forever,” Bokuto protested.

“I’m not saying you should lie, I’m merely suggesting you should enjoy whatever it is that’s between you while it lasts. Just live in the moment, leave the worrying to future you. You’ve always been good at that, so why not?”

“Why not…” Bokuto repeated thoughtfully. Kuroo was right. It did nobody any good if he tried to distance himself from Akaashi or came forward with the truth. That would destroy the good relationship, the trust they had finally started to build, while destroying his chances at completing the dare and winning Yukie back as their manager at the same time. 

He smiled at Kuroo, thankful for the advice. “Guess I’ll do that then.” 

Kuroo left for work ten minutes later, while Akaashi was still asleep. In fact, Akaashi stayed asleep for quite some time after that. At first, Bokuto felt bad for showering, afraid the running water might wake up the setter. Later, as he tried to make a good breakfast quietly and failed miserably when he dropped a pan, Akaashi still stayed asleep. He came to realise that the guy must be a very deep sleeper. How else would he have slept for so long on the couch, not bothered by Bokuto, Kuroo’s voice or even the horrid sound of metal crashing against the kitchen tiles? 

Bokuto took his time preparing breakfast. He fried some bacon, made scrambled eggs, prepared a new pot of coffee, sliced up some fruit and set the table. After he was done with that, though, Akaashi was  _ still _ asleep and Bokuto didn’t know what to do with himself. Eventually, he decided to actually use his time and got out his biology flash cards. Sitting down on the armchair next to the couch he tried to study. The emphasis lying on  _ try.  _ It was near impossible to concentrate when the sight of Akaashi peacefully asleep, clutching tightly onto a pillow, was so distracting. 

In Bokuto’s defense, he managed to get through two flash cards at least before he completely gave up on it and focused his attention on Akaashi instead. With Akaashi being asleep, there was no imminent threat of him catching Bokuto’s stare and giving him some sarcastic comment, so the ace could look at him as long as he wanted to. 

Akaashi’s sleeping face was adorable, his usual stern expression softer than usual, his lips slightly parted as he breathed through his mouth. His hair somehow seemed fluffier than usual and Bokuto really wanted to touch it, just once, just to see if it was really as soft as it seemed and to get that one strand of hair away from Akaashi’s left eye, so it wouldn’t bother him when he opened them eventually. Bokuto really wanted to touch that hair. But that would be weird, right? 

The button-up that had made Akaashi look so formal yesterday was now crinkled up and looked more like pyjamas. One of the upper buttons had apparently come undone during the night and left Bokuto with the sight of Akaashi’s collarbones and the promise of his toned pectorals. Not for the first time, Bokuto found himself confused by his own thoughts. He had seen Akaashi naked in the shower after practice so many times, so why was it that one single button that wasn’t closed could enchant him like that?

This was weird, he shouldn’t stare like that. Shaking his head, Bokuto tore his gaze away from Akaashi, back to his flashcards, only to find himself staring at the setter again a few seconds later. That cycle continued for some time until Akaashi started moving more on the couch and finally opened his eyes. 

In the course of only a few seconds his expression shifted from blissfully rested to confused to startled as he recognised Bokuto and realised where he was. He got up faster than Bokuto thought was possible for someone who had been fast asleep only a few seconds ago and started rambling, apologizing profoundly.

“I am so, so sorry Bokuto-san, I didn’t realise I was falling asleep, I didn’t mean to… I’m just going to...” 

Bokuto-san? When had been the last time Akaashi had spoken that respectfully to him?

“Akaashi, you didn’t do anything, I invited you here!” But the setter didn’t listen. Instead, he turned away from Bokuto to fold the blankets they had used and fluffing the pillows while he continued muttering something about overstaying his welcome and how deeply sorry he was. “I’ll be out of your hair in just a sec, just let me tidy up first.”

“Akaashi…” Bokuto got up and put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, prompting him to turn around. “Akaashi,” he said again, when he was sure he had his attention. He tried to put all of his captain authority into his voice. “You didn’t do anything. We fell asleep on the couch and that’s it. I don’t mind at all, I slept very well, actually, and I can fold the blankets myself.” 

Akaashi relaxed a little, but still seemed tense. 

“I made coffee and some scrambled eggs. Do you wanna eat something?” 

Tentatively Akaashi nodded.

“Great!”

The breakfast had already gone cold though and while Bokuto warmed it up again, Akaashi disappeared into the bathroom to freshen up. A little while later, they finally sat at the table, both digging in.

With every minute passed, Akaashi relaxed more, returning to his usual composed self. They talked about this and that, the game coming up tomorrow, the weather, Akaashi’s new literature assignment and Bokuto’s upcoming biology test.

“That was good,” Akaashi eventually said after he finished his plate, drinking the last sip of coffee. “I usually don’t like eating breakfast, but bacon and eggs always work, I guess.” 

“What?” Bokuto was surprised. “You don’t eat breakfast in the morning? How? You need that! It’s the foundation of the day! How do you even go through practice with an empty stomach?”

Akaashi shrugged. “It’s worked so far.”

“Your body needs these nutrients for you to be able to use your full potential. You  _ need  _ to eat in the morning!” Ok, maybe Yukie’s everlasting nutritionist lectures had rubbed off on him more than Bokuto would have thought. 

Akaashi smiled. “I wouldn’t mind eating breakfast more often if it was always as good as yours.”

Bokuto felt his chest swelling with pride. And maybe it was because of Kuroo’s suggestion or because that smile on the setter’s face was simply too beautiful to think about anything else than just this moment, he finally let himself relax. __

_ Just live in the moment. Let your future self worry about the rest.  _

“Guess I’ll just have to make breakfast for you more often, then.” 


	8. Volleyball and Jealousy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a volleyball game and a bar and an old friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took me a lot longer than I had anticipated, the first part of the chapter was written some time in May and I only now finished it in August and I'm pretty sure it shows. Hope you'll enjoy it anyways!

Akaashi had not always cared about volleyball. He started playing in middle school because the team needed more members and one of his few friends at the time, Aki, had persuaded him to join. It was alright since he needed a club to join anyways and doing sports got rid of that anxious energy he started feeling more and more during middle school. But he had been ready to give up on volleyball after middle school. He didn’t really see the benefit in joining a new team with new players he didn’t know. He didn’t pay much mind to it though. After all, he didn’t care about volleyball...yet.

It had been Bokuto who convinced Akaashi to care about volleyball. The ace always talked about ‘that moment’,  _ the _ moment, when you start loving volleyball. Little did he know, Akaashi had already had his moment, though it wasn’t when he was playing volleyball. It was when he witnessed Bokuto playing for the very first time.

Akaashi didn’t care about religion. He didn’t believe in gods or even God in the singular. It was just too unrealistic for him. Sure, he liked the traditional aspect. He liked going to the shrine on new years with his family, putting on his kimono, praying for victory for his team, good grades and stuff. He liked reading his fortune for the next year, teasing his little brother who somehow always had the worst of luck with his fortune and eventually swapping the little piece of paper with him, because his brother would be happy to have his good fortune and Akaashi didn’t believe in this stuff enough to be bothered by some generic bad fortune.

Akaashi didn’t believe in the gods, but watching Bokuto spike was a religious experience. 

It was then that he decided to continue playing volleyball, to go to Fukurodani, and to toss to that silver haired ace. 

He didn’t regret his decision once. Watching Bokuto play was a religious experience, but playing with him… Akaashi didn’t believe in the gods, but playing with Bokuto, tossing to him, helping him succeed, was probably the closest he had ever felt to being in heaven.

\---

Even though it was just a practice game, the locker room was filled with excitement when Bokuto and Kuroo arrived Sunday afternoon. The game might not count into any official ranking or anything, but as their last practice game before nationals it would set the mood. Bokuto stayed calm though since he knew he had played often enough: He knew he was good, he knew his team was good, there was no reason to be worried. And even if there was, worrying didn’t help anyone. 

He was still a little excited though. Chiba and Chuo had a long history of rivalry, both powerhouse universities in terms of sports, especially volleyball. They played on very similar levels and the outcome of their games were never predictable. On the six occasions they had played against each other ever since Bokuto joined the team, each team had won three times and Bokuto, as well as the rest of the team, was determined to change that score in their favour. While everyone discussed their tactics one last time, a little too excitedly to overplay the underlying anxiety, Bokuto had no doubt in mind that the players from chiba university in the other locker room were doing the exact same thing. 

After greetings and warming up, the whole team gathered around the coach for one last strategy talk. In a few short sentences, he went over the most important points everyone already knew from the strategy talks of the previous weeks.

“I don’t think I need to emphasize how strong Chiba is now that Hoshiumi and Sakusa are paired with Kageyama as their setter. Don’t underestimate the rest of the team though. Their receives are excellent as well, but so are yours.” The coach smiled at Yaku. “You know the team and most of you have already played against them, so use that knowledge and score some points. Bokuto?" With that, the coach left the task of giving a pep talk to the captain and went to sit on the bench.

"Alright!" Bokuto cleared his throat to talk louder. "I know we're not at nationals yet, but please act as if you were, because I won’t lose against Sakusa again." Some of the older players chuckled. “Nevertheless, make sure to practice the new techniques, even if they seem risky and don't work immediately, because that's what a practice match is for!" 

Hinata grinned and Bokuto knew what he was thinking. They had a new surprise attack in their repertoire that was going to irritate Kageyama for sure.

"Does anyone have anything to add?"

"I'm not Kageyama," Akaashi stated the obvious. "But if you can set up some nice receives, I’ll make sure to toss them in a way that will get us the points." 

It annoyed Bokuto that Akaashi compared himself to Kageyama. Sure, Kageyama was a prodigy not only as a setter, but also as a volleyball player in general. But Akaashi had the same sense of game, his tosses had gotten more and more precise over the last few years, even though they had always been excellent to begin with and Akaashi had one more year of experience. But above all, Akaashi was better at reading his teammates. Even though he rarely interacted with them, he knew how to get the most out of their game, whereas Kageyama, even though he had changed a lot, according to Hinata, still expected too much from the spikers from time to time.

“Will do!” Yaku answered Akaashi. He had his game face on and with that determined look on his face, it was hard for Bokuto to believe there could be any ball Yaku couldn’t save.

"Ok then! We'll block, we'll receive, we'll toss, we'll spike and we're going to win!"

All the players put their hands in the middle of their circle. “Team Chuo?!”

"Team Chuo!" The team answered and with that they filed onto the court.

The game started with Bokuto’s serve. As he walked up to the edge of the court, Kuroo snickered. “Betcha you won’t make the first service ace of the day.” 

Bokuto grinned. “Okay, you’ll buy me a drink tonight if I do.”

The whistle blew and Bokuto threw the ball up into the air. For a moment, it seemed to stay suspended in the air before Bokuto took his run up, accelerating towards the ball as it bowed down to gravity again, meeting his palm perfectly in the middle. He knew exactly where he wanted the volleyball to go and the ball listened, taking just the right spin to bounce away aimlessly from the forearms of anyone trying to receive it. The satisfying sound of a volleyball hitting the floor full force arrived in his ears before he even landed. The whistle announcing Chou’s first point brought a grin to his face. “Hey, hey, hey!” He high-fived Yaku next to him and turned to Kuroo. “One drink for me then.”

His next serve was received, though, and with that, the game started for real. Playing against Chiba was exhausting, exciting, and exhilarating. Both teams fought for every point, always neck and neck, neither willing to give the win to the other team.

Any worries they might have had about Hinata being too friendly with the opposing team’s member melted away after he got them the third point in a row. He seemed to be on top of his game playing against his boyfriend, his jumps higher and spikes even quicker than usual. Hinata demanded a lot from a setter and Akaashi sure knew how to deliver.

The 3 points won by Hinata were soon taken back though by Chiba when Sakusa was up to serve, only for Akaashi to surprise with a magnificent setter dump.

It was after half an hour, the scoreboard read 27:26 with Chuo being in the lead, when Akaashi put up his thumb and little finger behind his back, causing Hinata to smile. Bokuto was surprised Akaashi wanted to try their new trick now, as they were about to win the first set. He was usually the one to go back to approved methods at such critical points of the game. Not that Bokuto would complain though, it made sense for them to use it now. Either it would work and they'd get the point for sure, or it failed which would put them back to a tie, but wouldn't let them lose… yet.

It was Bokuto’s turn to serve. Instead of trying for some especially nasty spin or putting more power than usual into his serve, he went for his usual jump serve, one that was possible to receive by the opposing team, but was still almost always powerful enough to make for a sloppy receive as long as he made sure to aim somewhere out of reach for Chiba’s libero, Hagihara. He didn't disappoint, of course.

Kageyama received the volleyball with some difficulty and it came right back to Yaku who was more than happy to receive it. 

Hinata, Bokuto and Akaashi ran up to the net, but Hinata changed his direction at the last second, going to the right end of the court, which was his typical position to do a quick attack, giving him an excellent opportunity to do either a line or cross shot. But Yaku had stumbled, sending the ball in Hinata's direction instead of to Akaashi. Hinata quickly reacted to the situation, jumping earlier than anticipated, the blockers of the opposing field following his example. For a brief second, Bokuto could see Hinata smile ever so slightly at Kageyama, before turning a little in his jump, tossing the ball to Akaashi instead of spiking it into the block. Bokuto thought he might have never seen anything quite as beautiful as Akaashi spiking the ball to the other side of the net. The ball fell on the floor as if in slow motion, two Chiba players tried to reach it, but they were taken by surprise and reacted too slowly to have a chance. 

Feinting a spike and setting instead was a technique Akaashi had perfected in his second year already, but it had taken Hinata weeks to accomplish that skill as well, mostly because he wasn’t used to setting in the first place. 

The redhead was the first to laugh, while the rest of their team was still surprised the trick actually worked and even more because they had won the first set with it, but the confusion soon turned into joy. “Hey, hey hey!” Bokuto screamed his catchphrase even though it hadn’t been his spike. Hinata was his disciple after all, so he was allowed to be proud. He ran to high-five Akaashi who grinned in content as well.

“Akaashi, that was marvellous!”

“Marvellous? Where did you learn that word?” 

“Hey!” Bokuto pouted. “I can use big words!” 

“Come on, tell me, did you secretly start reading a dictionary?” He bumped his shoulder against Bokuto’s as they walked towards the rest of their teammates. 

“How about you just take the compliment instead of trying to make fun of me?” Akaashi seemed like he wanted to make one last joke, but Bokuto didn’t let him. He lowered his voice and looked at Akaashi seriously. “Because that was probably was the coolest spike we’ve had today. Mine excluded, of course.” Akaashi’s lips lifted ever so slightly, as if he was trying to suppress a grin, but the tips of his ears flushed. Ha!

They went towards the benches to drink, same as the Chiba team who seemed frustrated, but still focused. Only Kageyama was still on the field, staring at Hinata through the net. 

“Did you just…toss?!” 

Kuroo snorted. “That took him a while to process…” Then, louder, he shouted to Hinata. “Way to go shrimpy, now stop it with the dirty talk and come over here and drink something!”

It was truly more of a joke than a legitimate volleyball tactic, but Kageyama’s glare was definitely worth it. Excitedly, the team gathered to drink and talk strategies for the next set. 

“Ok, I think we could actually finish this in two sets,” Bokuto boasted loudly enough for the other team to hear. A little provocation didn’t hurt anyone. “But seriously,” he continued more quietly this time. “That last shot was amazing. Yaku, I know you didn’t like acting as if you didn’t receive the ball perfectly, but that was as perfect as it gets.” The libero smiled. “I know we said that it wouldn’t work more than once, since the surprise wouldn’t be on our side anymore, but I think we could try it with some variations like Hinata spiking the ball directly or tossing it to me. It’s a training game after all, so we can try stuff. In return,” Bokuto turned to talk to the coach directly,” I think we should switch Hinata for Akishimo when it’s his turn to serve, that way we should be able to keep the points we lose with our experiments. That’s just a thought though.” The coach nodded in agreement. He usually left the strategy talk to the team during practice games. Bokuto turned back to the players. “And don’t forget the other strategies we worked on. I know they still feel awkward, but they won’t grow on you if you don’t try.”

They lost the second set. Of course. They tried a lot of their new stuff, not all of it going smoothly, though it started working better after a few tries. Chiba, on the other hand, was a lot more concentrated, playing in a more aggressive style than before and revealing one or two new tactics themselves. Bokuto noted for himself that he wanted to try that variation on a synchro attack some time before nationals with their own team as well. 

The third set was neck and neck, again. Bokuto and his teammates had figured out which new strategies they could effectively use against Chiba and which were more effort than reward. Surprisingly, it was Hinata who got them the win in the end. After they had just gotten even with Chiba at 26 to 26, it was his turn to serve. After already swapping with Akishimo once that set, there was no way around Hinata’s serves. He had practised them a lot, that was to be said. And they weren’t horrible. No, he wouldn’t be allowed to play as a starter if his serves were bad, but compared to the other players, his jump-serves still looked like they were made by some first-grader. The first serve was perfect though, surprising the opponents who were waiting near the front lines, hitting the floor before they could even blink. 

Hinata cheered. “Told you my jump-serves were getting better!” That was directed towards Kageyama and got Hinata an annoyed glare by his boyfriend and a warning shout by the referee. 

He was exaggerating, but the opposite team didn’t seem to realise and the players positioned themselves cautiously just a little more to the back of the field. That was their big mistake, because even though Hinata had gotten better at jump-serves his success rate was still pretty low. The second ball hit the net, for a moment, Bokuto held his breath, afraid the ball might drop to their side, but then it dropped down to their opponents side, slowly, but still fast enough, hitting the ground before Kageyama or Hoshiumi had a chance to reach it. 

\---

It was kind of endearing watching Hinata and Kageyama talk. They were constantly teasing each other for even the smallest mistakes, but at the same time, they complimented each other, noting what the other had gotten better at.

“It was so funny though, how confused you were when I tossed! It was so worth it, training so much for that! I was like  _ shwoosh  _ but then I went like  _ boink  _ and you were like  _ oof. _ ” Hinata made a face that probably imitated Kageyma’s scowling.

“Should have worked on your jump-serves instead,” the taller buy muttered.

“What? You mean the jump-serves that got our team the last two points? I think they're just fine, thank you very much.” Hinata grinned. “By the way, did I already mention that  _ I  _ won against  _ you _ ?”

He had already mentioned it… three times as far as Bokuto heard it. He had no idea why Hinata was so extremely excited about that.

“It was just a practice match, dumbass,” Kageyama growled, but his expression didn’t seem to match his tone, the usual frown was gone and he looked affectionately, almost proud down to Hinata. 

“They’re kind of cute, huh?” 

Bokuto looked to his side, surprised to see Akaashi standing next to him. 

“Yeah… I was afraid they couldn’t really play against each other, or, if they could, they would start fighting.” He smiled. “But, I guess I was wrong. Hinata was better than ever with Kageyama as his opponent.” 

Bokuto turned around properly. “You were also amazing today!”

“Yeah…” Something in his voice didn’t sound right as Akaashi answered

Bokuto furrowed his brows. “What is it?” 

“Nothing,” but again, Akaashi’s tone brought across another message, so Bokuto waited for him to say more, which he finally did. “That toss at the end of the second set was super sloppy. You didn’t get it and we lost the set. We could have won the game in two sets and I ruined that for us.” 

“Are you actually serious?” 

Akaashi didn’t seem to register Bokuto’s objection, just looking at his toes. “And then just at the beginning of the third set, I didn’t know who to toss to and I thought about it for too long, so the ball arrived too late for Hinata and he couldn’t properly get it and Chiba’s block had an easy game.”

“What are you even talking about?” Bokuto was actually getting worried at this point.

“That point was crucial, it set the mood for the third set and I ruined it. It’s just…” Akaashi paused and fumbled with his fingers. “I wasn’t that good today, I made a lot of mistakes, so please don’t say I was good when that’s not the truth.” 

Bokuto was actually shocked by that statement. Never would he have expected the dark-haired setter to be so insecure and self-critical about his own play. 

“Uhm…”

“It’s ok, I’ll just have to train more before nationals start. I don’t want to disappoint you like that again.” Akaashi’s shoulders were slumped as he slowly turned around and started walking away from Bokuto.

“Akaashi, wait.” Bokuto grabbed him by the arm and made Akaashi look at him. “I have no idea where this is all coming from, but it’s bullshit.  _ You were good _ ! Sure, there were two little mistakes in your game, but that stuff happens to everyone, there is no such thing as a perfect game! I mean, look at me! My first serve during the second set, ‘the one to set the mood’, as you would say, was out of bounds! Even Sakusa and Kageyama made mistakes today!” 

Akaashi didn’t seem fully convinced yet, but seemed to relax a little. 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have even remembered those mistakes if you hadn’t told me about them.” Bokuto smiled brightly. “And apart from that, we won, so stop over thinking and tell me what I have to do to convince you to join us celebrating at the bar later!”

Akaashi smiled back hesitantly. “Uhm… you don’t have to do anything, I was actually going to ask if I could join you guys, anyways.” 

“YES!” Bokuto was really excited about that. Usually, Akaashi would try and get out of team celebrations, so joining them, even taking the initiative and asking if he could join, was something new, a change Bokuto definitely liked. “We don’t really have any concrete plans yet, but I texted with Hagihara yesterday and we were thinking of going out together, with both teams I mean. So I’ll go talk to him right now and let you know when I know more, alright?” 

Hagihara was the captain of Chiba’s volleyball team. With his average height, light brown hair, and quiet personality, he could seem pretty unremarkable compared to his teammates. Even when he wore the bright yellow libero jersey in contrast to his teammates in red, he blended into the background, which was probably one of his most lethal weapons as a libero. He always turned up at places no one had expected him to be, perfectly receiving the ball after Bokuto had just celebrated getting past the blockers. 

Hagihara didn’t mind leaving the spotlight to his teammates. Where Sakusa, Hoshiumi and even Kageyama as the setter stood out, he made sure to have their backs, giving their team a stable foundation. Even though he and Bokuto were very different types of volleyball players, captains and just people in general, they got along pretty well and having known each other since high school, it was always nice to catch up.

“Hey.” Hagihara smiled softly as he saw Bokuto approaching. “That was an exciting game, you played well.” 

“You too,” Bokuto answered, and he meant it. That was the thing he liked most about the other captain, he was always respectful and composed, Bokuto doubted he could talk so calmly after losing a game, even if it was just a practice match. 

“Though, you better watch out because we’re not going to lose again at nationals.” Okay, maybe Hagihara was composed, but that didn’t mean he could resist the usual trash talk after a game.

“You sure about that?” They both grinned as they exchanged a few harmless insults before Bokuto finally came to ask about celebratory drinks. They agreed on a time and place, a bar the Chuo team usually visited after games, before Bokuto had to leave for the after game discussion with his team. Just as he was about to turn around, Hagihara called him back again.

“What is it?” 

“Uhm… you know your friend, Yukie… the manager….”

Bokuto wasn’t surprised Hagihara had brought her up. His crush on her wasn’t really a secret. How could it be when Hagihara’s head turned into a tomato whenever anyone so much as mentioned her?

“Uhm..I was thinking… since our manager would be the only girl and I don’t want her to be lonely, maybe she could join us?”

“Already asked her to come.” Bokuto winked and grinned at the fellow captain. This was going to be fun.

“Bokuto!” He looked back and saw his team already assembled around the coach who was glaring at him.

“Alright, gotta go! See ya!”

He jogged over to his team and stood next to Kuroo and Akaashi. The coach had already started asking the youngest players about their observations, making notes himself. 

“Uhm, so their receives were really good…” Hinata stuttered. 

“And?” The coach wanted to hear more than that and Bokuto almost felt bad for his young student. It was one of the coaches’ techniques to not say anything about the game before all of the new players had brought up their own observations. It was to train their sense of game and it worked wonders, but Bokuto remembered all too well how uncomfortable it could get if you didn’t tell the coach what he wanted to hear. 

“We could maybe work more on our receives, too?” 

“And how would you propose we do that?” 

“Their libero and Sakusa had the most stable receives, so we could maybe watch tapes of the game and see how they did it and then practice it?” Hinata seemed unsure, but the expression on the coach's face softened a little. “A lot.” Hinata added with a little more confidence. “We’ll practice it a lot!”

“Very well, Takema, do you have anything else to add about Chiba’s defense?” 

While the surrogate setter spoke, Bokuto let his vision wander over his teammates until his eyes stopped on Akaashi. There was something weird going on with his face, brows a little furrowed, the corners of his lips pointed ever so slightly downwards. Was his mind still stuck on those tiny mistakes in the game? Bokuto bumped his shoulder against Akaashi’s. 

“You okay?” 

Akaashi jumped a little as he was jerked out of his thoughts. “Yeah, everything’s fine…” he whispered back, and after a short pause: “I didn’t know you and Hagihara got along so well.” 

“Yeah, he’s pretty cool.” Bokuto smiled, before he joined the team discussion about their defense, not paying any attention to Kuroo who had witnessed their interaction.

Kuroo’s lips twitched into a teasing smile as he leaned down to whisper into Akaashi’s ear. “Jealous much?” 

Akaashi didn’t dignify the question with an answer, but his flushed ears were confirmation enough for Kuroo.

\---

Not all of the players joined them for after game celebrations. Some had to go home and study, Sakusa’s absence didn’t surprise anyone and Takema had excused himself because apparently he had a date planned. 

Kenma had joined them after the match, and was talking to Akaashi at the moment, while Kuroo, by the looks of it, seemed to be teasing Hinata about something. Kageyama walked next to them, conflicted on whether he should be a good boyfriend and help Hinata or join in on Kuroo’s jokes. Hoshiumi and Yaku had fallen behind a little, deep in conversation. 

Bokuto walked next to Hagihara, glad they finally got to catch up again. 

“So how’s Konoha doing?” 

“Good, I think,” Bokuto grinned. “It’s not easy getting a hold of him, though. Big pharma business man is constantly travelling. Last time I talked to him he was in Germany for a conference, I think.”

Hagihara let out an impressed whistle. “Not bad!”

“Yeah, we should totally hang out some time when he’s in Tokyo next We can have a little Fukurodani-Iwata reunion!” 

“Sounds cool!”

“Or we’ll come to Shizuoka for old times sake, maybe visit your coach?” 

Hagihara grinned. “You wanna give the old man a heart attack?”

“What?” Bokuto pouted. “You really think he still hasn’t forgiven us? Konoha and I were only little innocent first years. We didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Well, except for puking all over his car at 5 am after drinking way too much beer for fifteen year olds.” 

“Alcohol  _ your _ senpais provided us with.” They both laughed now. The story of Bokuto’s first and last practice camp with Iwata came up every time they met. After all, it was how they had gotten to know each other in the first place. 

They continued talking about their old teammates as they made their way to the bar. Most of them had gotten normal jobs like Konoha or studied, like Bokuto and Hagihara themselves. Though, apparently, Hagihara’s old captain was now a starting setter for the black jackals. 

“I  _ knew  _ that name sounded familiar. That’s so cool! I wanna play for them too, as soon as I’ve graduated!”

“You better get used to Sakusa then.”

“Why? Does he want to play for them, too?” 

Hagihara shrugged. “You know how he is, he wouldn’t announce big plans like that before anything’s certain, but he does have a lot of MSBY merch and he’s constantly nagging me and the coach to do more tactical training based on their games.”

A few years ago, Bokuto was sure the thought of playing on the same team as Sakusa would have bothered him. The guy with these weird joints had bested him back in high school again and again, even making it into the top three aces Bokuto had always wanted to be a part of. But now he was older and while not necessarily a lot wiser, he sure was more mature and had started realizing that Sakusa, Ushijima and all these other aces he used to envy, were merely players he would love having on his team, having his back. 

“Uhm… So I was wondering, what is going on with that kouhai of yours?” Hagihara seemed hesitant asking the question.

“Hinata?” The redhead had started talking to Hoshiumi, something intense was going on between the two of them and Yaku was watching like some worried parent. 

“No, the setter. Akashi, was it?” 

“Akaashi,” Bokuto corrected the libero on reflex and laughed a little. The thought of Akaashi being his kouhai seemed just too absurd. Sure, he was younger, but he had always been just as, if not even more mature than Bokuto. “What about him?”

“Is there something going on with you two?” 

Bokuto stared at his friend in disbelief. “How did you know?! You only played one game against us!”

“So it hasn’t been going on for that long yet?” 

“Uhm… not really. We went on a few dates and it was a little weird at the beginning, not gonna lie, but now it’s really nice. We’re not together though.” Bokuto grinned and winked at his friend. “...yet.” 

“You sound confident.” 

“Well we did already hold hands and slept on the same couch once!” 

The libero grinned. “Cute.” 

Bokuto furrowed his brows. “But for real… how did you know? Did Kuroo tell you?”

Hagihara shrugged. “I don’t know, your dynamic was a little different today than in the games before. Like, I honestly think you played better than ever before and that wasn’t only because you had a good day. You know, you can’t spike without a good toss.” He lowered his voice. “And then there’s also the fact that your future boyfriend is constantly looking at us and I swear, if looks could kill, I’d be so dead right now!” 

Bokuto looked to the setter, making eye contact with him for a split second before Akaashi turned around, apparently very interested in the advertisement for a retirement home on the side of the street. 

“Jealousy really isn’t a good look on our dear Akaashi, right?” They both turned around to find Kuroo standing right behind them, having listened to their conversation for who knows how long. “Though I might be a little pissed, too, if my Kenma ignored me for this guy I barely know after I just joined after game celebrations for the first time in a year.” 

Bokuto’s eyes widened. “Damn, you think…Fuck!” They had arrived at the bar. In front of it waited Yukie with Suzumeda, who waved at them. Akaashi was already heading inside. As Bokuto hurried off to follow him, he could hear Kuroo’s teasing voice behind him. Apparently he had found a new victim.

“Now Hagihara, let’s find you a date for the night!” He raised his voice. “Ah Yukie, darling, it’s been some time.”

Yukie grinned and imitated his tone as she answered. “Yes, indeed, my friend.” Her smile got even wider as she focused the attention on the man next to Kuroo. “Hagihara! You’re here! How are you?”

Bokuto didn’t need to turn around to know that the libero had probably been reduced to a blushing, stuttering mess, if not by Kuroo’s comment, then at least by Yukie’s attention. But that wasn’t his problem at the moment. He had to talk to Akaashi.

The inside of the bar was only dimly lit and it took Bokuto a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the new light conditions before he could make out Akaashi standing at the counter, ordering.

“Hey, hey, hey!” The bartender skeptically raised his brows at Bokuto’s loud appearance, but Akaashi barely acknowledged him. “What are you getting?”

“A beer and fries.” Damn, he sounded annoyed. 

“Sound good,” Bokuto turned to the bartender. “I’ll have the same, but a coke for the beer and the chicken wings instead of the fries. And a salad,” he added as he realised that Yukie was here and would not hesitate to criticize him if he would only eat chicken wings. He could already hear her lecture about trans fats.

“So a coke, chicken wings and a salad?” 

“Yup.” 

“Chicken wings spicy, medium or baby?” Bokuto hesitated. He was not really into spicy food at all, but with Akaashi next to him, he couldn’t just say ‘baby’, what would he think of him? 

“Spicy!” 

The bartender looked up from the register. “You sure? Usually you..” 

“It’s alright,” Bokuto interrupted him. No need for the bartender to remind anyone of the time Bokuto had cried from the medium chicken wings. He was so going to impress Akaashi with his spice tolerance. Last time he didn’t have anything to drink. This time, with the coke though, he was sure he’d be fine.

He paid for everything and only now did he realise there was no need to order anything spicy since Akaashi had already vanished, sitting at one of the tables with Hinata and Kageyama. He turned to the Bartender and lowered his voice. “Okay nevermind, make the chicken wings mild.” 

The bartender grinned as he handed him the coke. “So a baby after all?”

“Hush! Not so loud!”

The guy just laughed. “We’ll bring the food to your table. And please remind that little friend of yours that we don’t serve minors in this establishment.” 

“Huh?” 

“You know, the redhead.” 

Bokuto laughed. “He’s old enough to drink, though Kageyama... “ he trailed off, remembering that Hinata had once mentioned that his boyfriend was actually younger than him. “They can eat here though, right?” 

“Whatever…” The bartender shrugged and started wiping the counter as Bokuto went over to Akaashi, Hinata and Kageyama. As soon as he arrived, Hinata and Kageyama left to order some food themselves and he was left alone with Akaashi. The dark haired setter barely acknowledged him, again.

“You okay, Akaashi?”

“Sure.” He looked up to Bokuto for a split second, before he took one of the menus and started reading in it, even though he had just ordered. 

“Sure?,” Bokuto investigated.

“Yeah, I mean…” Akaashi was still looking at the menu, even though it was obvious he wasn’t actually reading a word. “There’s nothing you can do, honestly. I’m just being stupid, I guess. I shouldn’t have…” he trailed off and started picking at one of the worn edges of the menu. 

“Shouldn’t have what?”

“I don’t know, it’s stupid, like I said, and like… it’s not like we’re in a relationship or anything, but I kinda don’t like it when you’reflirtingwithotherguys.”

“What?” The last part had come out way too fast and too quiet for Bokuto to understand.

Akaashi sighed and sat up straighter, taking a deep breath as he finally looked at the ace. “I don’t like it when you're flirting with other guys, ok?”

For a moment, Bokuto was shocked, even though Kuroo and Hagihara had already told him so, but after a few seconds, he couldn’t help but grin. “Wait, you’re  _ actually _ jealous of Hagihara?” 

“No!” Akaashi’s frown deepened. “I mean, it’s not like I have the right to be anything, we’re not together after all, you can flirt with whoever you want.”

With Akaashi acting like that, Bokuto almost felt bad for laughing. He was a little flattered that the setter was actually jealous. But of Hagihara? Akaashi started fiddling with his fingers again, looking down, so Bokuto put his hands above his, forcing the setter to pay attention to him.

“You’re right, we’re not in a relationship, but to be honest, I was kind of hoping we were heading in that direction, so it is ok for you to be mad when I suddenly start flirting with other guys. But, I wasn’t flirting with Hagihara. You know, liberos aren’t really my type” Bokuto lowered his voice as he started playing with Akaashi’s fingers. “I’m much more into cute dark-haired setters who are always way too serious, are amazing painters and start flushing as soon as you tell them they’re cute.” 

“I’m not blushing!” 

Bokuto grinned. “If you say so…”

“Fuck off…” Akaashi took his hands away from Bokuto’s to take a sip from the beer. 

“Anyways, that’s what my flirting usually looks like, I guess, nothing I would use on Hagihara. My talent would be totally wasted on him…” 

“Why?” 

“Because of that.” Bokuto pointed towards the bar counter where a good part of the teams had assembled to put their orders in. Akaashi looked in that direction and saw Yukie and Hagihara standing a little secluded from everyone else. She was just laughing at something he had said, touching Hagihara’s biceps intentionally. When she talked, she played with her hair, eyes fluttering, flirting shamelessly. The captain seemed pretty happy about it, smiling widely. “Hagihara has a  _ huge  _ crush on Yukie.” 

“Oh…” Akaashi seemed to be content with that, but after a second, he turned to Bokuto. “Wait, I thought she was…”

“..gay?,” Bokuto finished. “Yeah, she is, but that doesn’t stop her from getting a free drink whenever she can.” He shrugged. “And I just don’t have the heart to tell him. Just look how happy he is!”

Akaashi frowned. “That’s really mean!”

“Yeah?” 

“She’s leading him on. And the longer it takes for him to realise, the more he’s gonna get hurt.”

Bokuto shrugged, not really sure what to answer, so he took a sip of his coke, mumbling something incomprehensible into his glass that sounded like an affirmation, resolved he had to make sure Akaashi  _ never  _ found out about the dare. 

Slowly, the rest of their group started joining them at their table, and Bokuto and Akaashi’s food arrived. 

Promptly, Yukie inspected their food. “A salad…I’m proud of you, you’ve learned!” She turned to Akaashi. “You though… Only fries? I would have expected better from you, Akaashi.” 

Akaashi raised one eyebrow. “Forget it. I’m not a first year anymore. I won’t fall for this again.” 

Yukie sighed dramatically and turned to Suzumeda. “They grow up so fast, Kaori! What shall we do?”

Suzumeda grinned. “Wait for better victims.” She nodded towards Hinata and Kageyama who were in the middle of some petty fight, just as their food arrived. Two platters of fried food, ranging from sea fruits over chicken wings to curly fries. 

“They forgot the Ketchup. Can you get some, please, Kageyama?” 

The setter frowned. “No?! Get it yourself, dumbass!”

“Please?” Hinata looked up at him, through his big brown eyes. “Because I won today, Tobio?” 

Whether it was the use of his given name and these puppy eyes or because they had some bet going regarding the game, Kageyama got up begrudgingly and made his way towards the bar.

“Hinata?” Yukie sounded worried.

“Yeah?” 

“Are you  _ sure _ you want to eat that?”

“Of course, I need energy after the game. Lots of carbs and protein, coach always says.” Yukie nodded slowly, her eyebrows furrowed. “Why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, really… I don’t want to ruin your meal!”

Hinata’s interest was sparked. “Why? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Well not just  _ one  _ thing. Like, where do I even start?” Bokuto knew that she knew exactly where to start.    
  


“You know I’m studying to become a nutritionist, right?” Hinata nodded. First point of Yukie’s speech: Establish credibility.    
  


“And you know, you’re right about the proteins and carbs. Your body  _ does  _ need these nutrients after a big game like today, especially after your impressive performance.” Hinata grinned. Step two: Give her victim something to feel good about.    
  


“But, you know, this is probably the unhealthiest way ever to consume protein. Do you even know how many trans fats are in fried food? Those nasty beasts destroy your body on the most molecular level.” Step three: Destroy the victims desire to eat fast food, ever again. Yukie went on and on about how unhealthy Hinata’s choice of food was and the redhead seemed to get more and more uncomfortable.

“But I’m doing a lot of sports, so it’s not that bad, right?” 

Yukie shook her head and sighed. “I wish, but once that stuff is in your body, it stays there. All that cholesterol you’re eating with the seafood… The gastrointestinal system is surprisingly efficient at recycling it. So while it’s good that you’re so active, you also have to make sure you’re eating the right things to stay healthy.”

“But like, what happens when I eat this stuff?” 

“Well…” Yukie sighed. “It slowly but surely stuffs your arteries until at some point you’re bound to have some heart problems or even a stroke. And playing volleyball after a stroke…” 

Hinata went white as a ghost when she mentioned volleyball and pushed the plate away from him. “I don’t think I want to eat this anymore...” 

“Good choice.” Both Yukie and Suzumeda nodded in agreement. “Maybe you should get something like rice and mackerels. That’s a lot healthier!” 

“Sure thing!” Hinata smiled brightly as he got up. “If anyone wants this…” He gestured towards his plate with a disgusted frown. “Go for it.” 

Just as he was about to go, Kageyama returned with the ketchup and started eating. “Kageyama stop it, you can’t eat that!” 

“Why?” Kageyama ate another fry. 

“Do you want to  _ die?” _ Hinata started giving Kageyama exactly the same speech he had just gotten from Yukie until the setter stood up with the same disgusted face as Hinata earlier. 

“I won’t eat that. Come on, boke, let's get rice and mackerel!”

Yukie and Suzumeda had the decency to wait until the couple had left before they high-fived and each took one of the plates. 

Akaashi grinned. “I can’t believe you’re still doing that.”

Suzumeda laughed. “I can’t believe there’s still people falling for it! Yukie’s been using the same speech ever since our second year.” She turned to her friend. “You’re studying to be a nutritionist, so you should really add a few new things you learned at college.” 

Yukie shrugged. “Never change a running system. We’ve got food, so what are you complaining for?” 

The evening went on comfortably. Even though the game had drained everyone’s energy, they were still determined to get as much as they could out of their last hours of the weekend before classes awaited them again the next morning. 

The Chiba players were first to say their goodbyes, since they still lived in another city and had a train to catch. Some of the students from Tokyo took that as their cue to leave as well and after Kenma had dragged Kuroo home along with him, the only ones remaining were Akaashi, Suzumeda, Yuki and Bokuto, or as the latter liked to call it: The Fuku-Gang. Maybe not everyone was as excited about the gang name as he was. 

Bokuto took a sip of his coke and looked fondly at Akaashi who was just excitedly explaining the pros and cons of Mikasa volleyballs compared to Molten volleyballs to Suzumeda who nodded seriously. Over the course of the evening, he had been surprised by how well Akaashi got along with everyone. Sure, Bokuto hadn’t expected him to be hostile or anything, he was long over the whole ‘Akaashi is arrogant’-phase, but it still surprised him how open Akaashi was to meet new people and reconnect with Suzumeda and Yukie, without actually needing Bokuto as a middle man. In fact, it was the three of them doing most of the talking at the moment, while Bokuto, not really in character for him, just leaned back and enjoyed listening to their chatter. He hadn’t noticed it at the museum, when he did most of the talking himself, but now that he was listening to their conversation, he realised that Akaashi was actually closer to their former manager than Bokuto had thought. 

Apparently, Akaashi and Suzumeda had worked for the school paper from time to time, writing articles on the volleyball games. It came up when Suzumeda had mentioned she was thinking about starting a blog focused on sports. Akaashi and Yukie had instantly told her to do so, saying her articles for the school paper had always been great. Bokuto stayed quiet. He thought it was a good idea as well, seeing how frustrated she seemed to be from the boredom of her job, but shamefully admitted that he had never really bothered to read the school paper. It had mostly been for the parents to keep them updated about their children’s lives, anyways, but now that he found out how much work Suzumeda had put into these articles and with Akaashi's disappointed look in his eyes he started to regret it. 

“What do you mean you didn’t read the articles? Suzumeda and I put so much work into those! It took us  _ hours  _ to decide on the right words, to find the right pictures that showed the players only in the best angles!” 

“I’m sorry?” 

“You better be! My heart is broken.” Akaashi put his hands to his chest, pretending to be struck by something and rolled back his eyes as though he was dying, before he glared back up at Bokuto. “Broken,” he emphasised again. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes and his cheeks were flushed. Apparently, one beer was enough to get him tipsy. Funny, Bokuto thought, how a tall volleyball player like Akaashi could be such a lightweight. 

“How can I make it up to you,” he said out loud, mirroring the exaggerated tone Akaashi had just used on him. 

“Hmmm… I don’t know yet, let me think!” Akaashi looked into the void for a second, seemingly deep in though. Without really thinking about it, Bokuto grabbed one of Akaashi’s hands and started playing with his fingers. Akaashi looked down and got distracted, focusing all of his attention on their intertwined fingers for a second before reciprocating the pressure from Bokuto’s hand. When he spoke up again, he seemed to have forgotten about a punishment for Bokuto. “Anyways Suzumeda, please start a sports blog, I really think you would do a great job and you’d have at least one reader with me.” 

Suzumeda didn’t seem convinced. “You sure?” 

"I agree," Bokuto chimed in. "I mean sure, I've never read any of your articles, but Akaashi is a literature major, he knows what he's talking about!" 

"Exactly! Thank you Bokuto!" 

"Shut up!" Suzumeda was clearly flustered. "You wrote the articles with me, it was just as much your work as it was mine!" 

"Nah…" Akaashi lifted the index finger of his free hand in the air. "You know it wasn't, I just did the proofreading and made sure the pictures were well placed, but you did the actual writing!"

Bokuto grinned. “Always the editor, huh?” 

”You know me!” Akaashi flashed his teeth as he smiled back and Bokuto felt his heart melting a little at the sight.

Yukie clapped her hands once, and raised her voice. “Alright then so we’ve established: Kaori’s going to start a sports blog and you guys are disgustingly cute, but I think we should get going. We still have classes tomorrow.” 

“I don’t...” 

“Don’t undermine my authority, Kaori!”

Nevertheless, they paid their tabs and started packing up. Once outside the bar, they split up, since Yukie and Suzumeda had to go in a different direction than Bokuto and Akaashi. Well, technically, Bokuto needed to go in the same direction as Yukie and Suzumeda as well, but he didn’t like the idea of letting Akaashi go home alone, so he took the younger guy by the hand and announced he would accompany him on the way home. 

“Lead the way, Akaashi!” 

\---

After twenty minutes by foot they arrived at the apartment complex Akaashi lived at, though Bokuto kind of wished it had taken them longer.

“Alright, so good night, I guess…” Sheepishly, Bokuto brought his hand up to his neck, not really wanting to say goodbye quite yet. 

“Yeah… you too. Thanks for walking me home.” Akaashi seemed just as hesitant to say goodbye, just as Bokuto was about to turn around, he raised his voice again. “Uhm wait! The school paper… you said you wanted to read it some time, right? I think I have a few of them somewhere laying around upstairs, if you wanna…” Akaashi trailed off, voice unsure and Bokuto couldn’t suppress a huge smile stretching across his face. 

“YES!” He cleared his throat and tried to lower his voice. “I mean, yeah, I’d like to read that.”

Akaashi’s face softened and the tension in his voice disappeared. “Alrighty, come on in then.” He unlocked the front door and held it open for Bokuto. “Age before beauty!”

Akaashi’s place surprised Bokuto. After the date at the restaurant, he had expected the setter to live in some high end penthouse but the apartment he stepped into a few minutes later was surprisingly modest. Sure, it was slightly bigger than the average cramped Tokyo flat, but not by much, in fact, it kind of reminded Bokuto of his own place minus the sauce stains on the carpet and too many unwashed dishes. Everything in the apartment seemed to say Akaashi. Most of the space in the apartment was occupied with one thing or another, cluttered but still organised and tidy, just like Bokuto would have expected from Akaashi. 

The only thing standing out was Akaashi’s desk that stood below a window. It was probably the messiest thing Bokuto had ever seen, which was saying a lot, looking at his own room. The desk was overflowing with sheets of papers, books, different pencils and highlighters laying around and Bokuto felt bad for the notebook that was buried beneath one very heavy looking dictionary. 

The walls were all lined with shelves, mostly filled with books and dvd cases, but there were also some spaces filled with plants, painting utensils and Bokuto even recognised the packaging of some computer games Kenma liked to play as well. 

In one of the shelf spaces was a TV, facing the couch in the middle of the room. Behind the couch was a small table with a fruit bowl filled with one single apple on top.

“Your place is really cool!” 

“Yeah?” Akaashi didn’t seem to care much about the compliment as he walked towards one of the shelves. “Thanks, I guess.” He stood on his tiptoes, eyeing some magazines. He had an impressive collection of shonen jump mangas, something that Bokuto’s mother had told him he was too old to read. He was pleased to know Akaashi didn’t bow to such stupid rules. Next to the mangas were a few thinner magazines, apparently the ones Akaashi was looking for since he took them out of the shelf and handed them to Bokuto. They were the old school papers the setter had promised him. 

“I only kept those three, because they had our best articles. Or well...” He grinned awkwardly. “The articles were about our best games.” 

“Thanks!” Bokuto grinned back at Akaashi for a second before he skipped through the pages to find the article about the volleyball team. Two whole pages were devoted to their experience at the spring interhigh tournament in Bokuto’s second, Akaashi’s first year in high school. One page showed candid pictures of the team, one with Bokuto mid-jump, another one of Akaashi and Konoha high-fiving, probably after making a point. The other page was filled with text describing the games and everything else there was to know about the tournament. 

“You can take them home with you, if you’d like,” Akaashi disrupted Bokuto’s reading. 

“Oh yeah, right! Can’t wait to read it!” Bokuto grinned at Akaashi, again. It was hard not too, with Akaashi’s cheeks blushing just the slightest bit at Bokuto’s excitement. He put the school papers in his sports bag, careful not to crinkle any pages. “Anyways, thank you!” He slowly made his way to the door, still not content to leave yet, but he didn’t want to overstay his welcome. Akaashi was probably tired.

Bokuto opened the door and took a step out into the hallway before turning around to face Akaashi a last time. “I’ll see you at practice tomorrow?” 

“Sure.” There was a look in the setter's eyes that Bokuto couldn’t read. Looking down, he could see that Akaashi was biting his lip, focusing Bokuto’s attention on those lips and not for the first time, he wondered what it would be like to kiss them. And hell, he wanted to kiss Akaashi, but for the first time in years, the thought of kissing someone was making his heart race and his hands sweaty. 

With Akaashi there was no third date on a rooftop with a nice view, where he could confess and get his first kiss like he had done so many times before. With Akaashi there was no routine, it was scary and exciting and even though he really, really wanted to kiss the raven, he also really, really didn’t want to fuck things up by overstepping boundaries, pressuring Akaashi into something he didn’t want to do. 

“Everything alright?” Bokuto’s eyes shot up to meet Akaashi’s. “You zoned out a little, probably about time you got home to sleep.” 

“Yeah, I should really…” Bokuto trailed off, because Akaashi’s lips had caught his attention yet again, when the setter licked them. It was probably nothing. Akaashi just needed to wet his lips. There was nothing to it and Bokuto’s should really stop being so distracted by one single pair of red chapped lips, but here he was, yet again questioning if this was the right moment to kiss Akaashi.

Before he could finish his thoughts or try to finish his sentence, he was interrupted by said pair of lips pressing on his own and every rational thought went out the window. While Akaashi’s lips were chapped, they were somehow still soft and also really warm and Bokuto could still taste a hint of beer.

It was over just as fast as it had begun: Akaashi pulled away, the confident look in his eyes in total contrast to his flushed cheeks. 

“Leave the overthinking to me, will you?” 

With that, he turned around and closed the door before Bokuto could answer. Not that he could have done so anyways, it took him a full minute to even start thinking orderly again before he made his way down the stairs and to the subway in a trance. 

Akaashi just kissed him. Akaashi just  _ kissed  _ him. Akaashi, his setter, this beautiful, arrogant, not really arrogant but actually funny and smart and anxious and talented guy just kissed him. 

Some part of Bokuto, the one that didn’t even acknowledge his surroundings, was still in shock, not sure if this was real or just a very realistic dream. Another part of his brain, though, knew it was real, that Akaashi’s lips had actually touched his. The feeling of chapped, warm lips and the taste of beer still lingering served as a reminder to that. 

Bokuto couldn’t stop smiling on the subway. He smiled as he got to his apartment and opened the door. He smiled as he brushed his teeth and put on his pyjama pants, and he smiled when his head finally hit the pillow.

Akaashi had kissed him! 


	9. Definitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So... they kissed. Now they just need to talk about it. Easy right?

Akaashi cared about a certain ace named Bokuto Koutarou. 

There was really no point in denying it. He had cared about him the way fans care about celebrities, back when he had only seen him play volleyball once. He cared about him like teammates care for each other. He cared for Bokuto the way people instinctively care for hurt animals when the ace went into one of his depressive modes. 

And it was funny, because, at first, Akaashi had noticed about Bokuto when he was on the court, giving his all, always 100% and then a few more. An ace in every sense of the word, inspiring everyone around him. Inspiring Akaashi. And when Akaashi finally got to know Bokuto, got to play with him, he realised that this was just who Bokuto was. A person who always gave 100%, whether it was while he was at his best, or when he was dedicated to his sulking.   
Bokuto was the kind of person to go out of his way to make sure his friends were happy, or just being oblivious to everything. Bokuto would immerse himself in Mathematics one day because he liked the topic so much, surpassing even the best students, and then go on to fail the next test, because he didn’t like the new topic.   
There wasn’t really an inbetween: Whatever Bokuto did and felt, he did it with all his heart or not at all. And to Akaashi, who had never really felt a passion like that, who only started playing Volleyball to be physically active, who liked to read and watch movies and listen to music, but could never pick a favourite, that kind of all-or-nothing-mentality was extremely fascinating.

He didn’t care that Bokuto didn’t seem to care about him all that much, not really. 

Except... he realised how much he actually did, when Bokuto started paying more attention to him all of a sudden. Feeling what it was like when Bokuto decided to care about him was an experience.   
He wasn’t sure at first, if it was a good one or not, afraid of inevitably boring Bokuto at one point to another afraid of getting used to his attention, only to be left on his own yet again, when Bokuto moved on. 

But it was hard to worry with Bokuto around. 

And knowing that Bokuto actually cared about him, only made Akaashi care about him even more. Until it wasn’t even a question that Akaashi didn’t only care about Bokuto but actually liked him. More than just a little. More than teammates like each other. More than friends like each other.

And even if it was just a temporary thing, even if Bokuto found something, someone else after a few months, Akaashi didn’t really care all that much. Because at least, he would have had that time, being near Bokuto, enjoying all of his quirks, basking in the warmth that came from orbiting around a star. And yeah, maybe it would hurt when it eventually ended, but as long as he was with Bokuto, Akaashi honestly couldn’t find it in himself to care about the consequences. 

Akaashi cared about a certain ace named Bokuto Koutarou because he was falling head over heels in love with him. 

(And a little part of him wondered if he hadn’t always felt about Bokuto in that way.)

\---

The next morning, Bokuto woke up in an incredibly good mood, which was weird considering it wasn’t even his alarm clock that woke him up, but his neighbours next door fighting about whose turn it was to walk the dog. Living in a huge apartment complex in a major city like Tokyo, he didn’t know too much about his neighbours. All he knew was that they didn’t enjoy Bokuto and Kuroo’s singing and that they had a cute little poodle that none of his neighbours seemed to be fond of when it came to walking him at 5:30 in the morning.

But again, Bokuto was in a good mood. Akaashi had kissed him yesterday, it was impossible for him not to be in a good mood. The world was bright and beautiful and it was time to put out the good into the world that he himself had received. But just as Bokuto was about to get up, to knock next door and offer to walk the dog himself, the voices calmed down and he heard a door slammed shut. Apparently they had come to an agreement. A look on his phone told Bokuto that it was time to get up anyways, if he wanted to get in his morning run before practice. 

The apartment was empty because Kuroo had slept over at Kenma’s again. It felt weird to be alone like that, no Kuroo sleepily coming into the kitchen as soon as he smelled Bokuto making coffee, no disgruntled Kenma when they started arguing about recent games in the v-league too loudly and woke him up. 

There were a few good things about it though. For example, that he could actually drink his whole coffee for once, without Kuroo stealing half of it, because one cup apparently wasn’t enough for that caffeine addicted weirdo. Or that Bokuto could take all the time he needed in the bathroom without anyone knocking and disrupting him. 

After doing all of that, drinking his coffee, eating a light snack and going to the bathroom, he took the sports bag he discarded on the couch last night, hopeful to find a shirt that wasn’t disgustingly sweaty and could be used for a morning run before being thrown into the washer. Instead of a shirt though, Bokuto found the school papers Akaashi had given him yesterday. 

His morning run was soon forgotten as he started reading through the articles. They certainly managed to make him feel nostalgic. The article about spring interhigh with Suzumeda’s detailed descriptions really managed to take him back in time, and a few little dry comments that were certainly added by Akaashi made it feel as though Bokuto was standing on the court, right next to the setter. There were so many things he had almost forgotten about. Like the drama at interhigh in his third year, when Konoha twisted his ankle and had to be replaced, constantly glaring at the first year who replaced him whenever the poor guy showed a sign of weakness. The time Bokuto managed to score four service aces in a row back in second year during interhigh against Itachiyama or that one game against Shinzen, when Akaashi and Bokuto had finally performed their perfected quick attack for the first time. Back then, he never would have thought he could forget any of that, but now he was here, wondering how he hadn’t thought of those events in years. After he had read all of the articles twice, he took a photocopy of them, before putting the original school papers back in his backpack to give to Akaashi during practice. 

Akaashi. Akaashi, who had kissed him yesterday. On the lips. The thought alone led to Bokuto squealing like a teenage girl and he was yet again glad he was home alone. There was no way Kuroo would ever let him forget such a noise. 

He got to uni a bit earlier than usual. He already had his coffee, but made his way to the cafeteria nevertheless, hoping to meet Akaashi before practice. The chances were… well, he didn’t actually know how high the chances of meeting Akaashi at the cafeteria were, after all, it could be that Akaashi usually drank his coffee at home just like Bokuto. He only realised that though, as he was standing in line to order, without a raven setter in sight. 

“Hi, what can I get you?” 

Bokuto hesitated. What did he want? What would Akaashi want? Coffee? Sure, but he would probably get that for himself, right? But breakfast, Bokuto remembered, breakfast was something Akaashi didn’t get or make for himself. Training on an empty stomach, even if Akaashi insisted he was used to it, was something Bokuto couldn’t support. Not as a teammate, not as a captain and least of all as an aspiring boyfriend. Quickly, he scanned the display, trying to think like Yukie and he suddenly understood why she was always complaining about cafeteria food. The bags of chips, donuts and luke warm mini pizzas really didn’t qualify as a healthy breakfast. In the end he decided on a blueberry muffin, at least that thing had fruits in it. 

As he turned around he finally saw Akaashi, just getting in line as well. Just like the week before, he had big headphones on, his eyes nearly closed, as though it was too much of an effort to keep them open, just yet. Bokuto approached carefully, he had learned at this point that the setter got startled easily with his headphones on. Akaashi’s eyes widened as he recognised Bokuto, a shy smile on his lips as he put down the headphones. 

“Hey, hey, hey,” Bokuto said quietly, not wanting the sleepy look on Akaashi’s face to disappear just yet. “I got you a muffin!” 

Akaashi’s eyes went down to look at Bokut’s hands holding the treat and he furrowed his brows. “I don’t really eat breakfast…” 

Bokuto grinned. “I know, that’s why I got you something!” 

Akaashi smiled back hesitantly as he thanked Bokuto, took the muffin and started eating it. For not being ‘a breakfast person’ he sure seemed happy munching the treat. 

“So what are you listening to?” Bokuto pointed to the headphones. 

Instead of answering, Akaashi just handed him the headphones over and tapped on his phone to restart the song. Soon, Bokuto recognised the notes of a japanese pop song that had been in the charts a couple of years ago. “Man, I haven’t heard that song in ages!” Akaashi nodded and Bokuto hummed along to the tune quietly, reminded of summer days and training camps, as Akaashi ordered and handed him a coffee without Bokuto ever prompting him to do so. 

After the song ended, they started talking, Bokuto told Akaashi about his neighbours and how he had read the school paper this morning. Akaashi listened mostly, only sometimes slipping in a comment or another. On some level, Bokuto knew he should probably ask Akaashi about that kiss yesterday, what it meant and if they were going to do that again, which he sure hoped for, but for some reason, he couldn’t really bring himself to ask. 

This was good as it was, comfortable and exciting at the same time, no butterflies in his stomach like he was used to, but a warm feeling in his chest that made him want to explode out of pure joy. He didn’t want to ruin that mood with questions that could be answered another time. And as he was walking next to Akaashi, their hands brushing again and again, until Bokuto just took Akaashi’s firmly in his and the setter reciprocated the pressure with a shy smile on his lips, Bokuto wasn’t even sure if there were any questions to ask.

The next morning they met again in the cafeteria, again, Bokuto bought Akaashi a blueberry muffin without the latter asking him to, only for Akaashi to get him a cup of coffee, without Bokuto… well actually wanting coffee, because again, he already had his at home and two cups of coffee left him slightly hyperactive for the remainder of the morning. But there was no way Bokuto would ever destroy that hopeful smile on Akaashi face when he presented him with a chocolate caramel macchiato. 

“I just took the most disgustingly sweet thing from the menu.” He shrugged. “I assumed you’re into that stuff.” And well.. Bokuto was. Much more than he was into whatever kind of heavy metal band Akaashi was listening to that day. Akaashi just laughed at Bokuto’s shocked face and promised a softer song for the next day. 

And with that, they just quietly slipped into a new routine: Bokuto stopped drinking his coffee at home in the morning, instead using the time to prepare a little snack he could bring for Akaashi. They’d meet at the cafeteria, Akaashi with a sickenly sweet coffee in his hand, that he deemed appropriate for Bokuto, with which he was usually right and in turn, Bokuto would hand him waffles, or oatmeal in a mason jar or just a simple sandwich. Then he’d ask Akaashi what music he was listening to, Akaashi would hand him the headphones, Bokuto would listen to the song, by the end of the which they were usually already holding hands and they started talking about their plans for the day, the book Akaashi had started reading the day before, or the problem Bokuto had with the tv.

On wednesday, Bokuto skipped the coffee at home, instead making waffles that he put into tupperware to bring for Akaashi who was already waiting for him at uni with a chococino, perfect for the rainy weather that day. That day, Akaashi’s song was a lot more relaxed compared to the heavy metal from the day before. Soft piano music with a rough male voice that was somehow more whispering than actually singing. Bokuto asked Akaashi for the name of the song, before giving him back the headphones and taking Akaashi’s hand in turn.

On thursday, they still didn’t talk about the kiss, despite it being on Bokuto’s mind constantly. How couldn’t it be, when Akaashi was drinking some foamy latte instead of his usual black coffee and had this milk mustache on his upper lip after taking the first sip. It took Bokuto all the self-control he had not to try and kiss it away, but there was something holding him back, because Akaashi hadn’t tried to kiss him again. He hadn’t even tried to talk about it. 

There were many different scenarios that Bokuto went through in his head over the week, and only half of them were actually somewhat reassuring. The most likely being that, just like him, Akaashi was waiting for Bokuto to take the first step. But there were also a lot of other scenarios that Bokuto didn’t like half as much:

What if Akaashi regretted that kiss? What if he had only kissed Bokuto to get rid of him because he wanted to go to bed? What if he did actually want to kiss Bokuto, but then, after kissing him, had realised that he didn’t like kissing Bokuto after all? What if Bokuto had had bad breath when Akaashi kissed him and that’s why he didn’t try to kiss him again, afraid of stinky Bokuto?

Bokuto tried not to think about these scenarios too hard. Akaashi hadn’t run away screaming yet, so that meant that whatever the reason for Akaashi’s silence was, it couldn’t be too bad. These scenarios stayed in the back of Bokuto’s head regardless, and came back whenever he thought about talking to Akaashi about that kiss. And even though Bokuto would have preferred kissing Akaashi again, he was fully content with holding Akaashi’s hand while walking to practice together. It was nice, and a whole lot better than walking to practice… well… without Akaashi.

Yukie and Kuroo, though, didn’t seem to get that at all. They were sitting together at their cafeteria table: Yukie, as always, complaining about the cafeteria food, Kuroo, as always, complaining about Yukie forcing him to eat a salad along with the food and Bokuto quietly eating his salad, because he’d been friends with Yukie for way too long to even try to revolt against eating his vegetables when it finally came up. 

“I really don’t get why you’re so involved in my eating habits. I’m an adult, you know?” Kuroo complained.

Yukie didn’t even look up as she answered. “An adult wouldn’t cry like some baby about eating a salad.”

“I’m not crying like...” 

“Besides,” Yukie interrupted Kuroo’s protests, “aren’t you always on Kenma’s neck to eat more vegetables as well?” 

“Well, yeah, but that’s because he is my boyfriend and he already has these weird sleeping habits and sits in front of his console all day with this bad posture. I don’t need him to add gut problems or high cholesterol to that list.” 

Yukie finally looked up from her plate with a scary look on her face, annoyed and with that little spark of fury behind her eyes that always had Bokuto running for the broom back in high school when the team was arguing about whose turn it was to clean up. She didn’t even need to say anything, Kuroo instantly started eating his salad at a speed that had Bokuto worrying he might actually choke on it. “Yeah, I thought so.” Yukie went back to picking apart her rice and curry. 

Kuroo finished his salad before he dared to speak up again. “So is this how it’s going to be when you’re our manager again?” 

“No.” Yukie smiled at him sweetly. “It’s going to be worse. Bokuto told me you aren’t taking your endurance training seriously. We’re going to work on that as well. How are you expecting to win at nationals when you’re already tired after playing two sets?” 

Kuroo shot Bokuto a hurt look. “You told her?!”

Bokuto shrugged. “She needs to know that kind of stuff when she’s going to become our manager again.”

“When’s that going to be anyways?” 

“Yeah, I’d like to know that, too, actually.” Yukie glanced at her phone. “I wanted to start making plans for the summer and I should know if I’ll have to take care of training camp preparations in august or if you’ll still be busy just holding hands with Akaashi by then.” Somehow she was able to make holding hands sound like an insult, as if walking to practice in the morning, with Akaashi’s hand in his, wasn’t the best part of Bokuto’s day. 

“Excuse you, we’ve actually already kissed, okay?” 

Kuroo, who was just taking a sip of his drink, made a strangled sound and started coughing, spraying water all over the table. After a few heartfelt claps from Bokuto on his back, he finally stopped coughing and gave Bokuto a bewildered look. “Bro! Why is it the first time I hear of this? I thought we told each other everything!”

Bokuto shrugged. There wasn’t an explanation that would really satisfy Kuroo. Sure, they hadn’t seen each other a lot, with Kuroo’s new habit of sleeping over at Kenma’s instead of the other way around. And sure, he could say that a kiss wasn’t a big deal for him, he’d done a lot of different, less innocent things with guys, but these were just cheap excuses. After all, he still saw Kuroo every day during lunch and, yes, kissing guys wasn’t a huge deal in Bokuto’s life, but kissing Akaashi was a whole different story. 

Though that was probably the problem. Kissing Akaashi, Akaashi kissing him, was a huge fucking deal and while Bokuto still didn’t really know what to make of it, with Akaashi not mentioning it again, he still enjoyed it. And he didn’t want to ruin this new, exciting thing, by discussing that kiss with his friends, who were nice, but would tease and worse, put that kiss in context to the dare. And sure, that was their good right, ok, but it still left Bokuto with that bitter taste in his mouth. Akaashi had taken that huge first step, had put himself out there by kissing Bokuto and it simply felt wrong to treat that as just another step in a plan to get Yukie back as their manager. 

“Yeah, Sunday, after I walked him home, he kinda kissed me. It wasn’t a whole makeout session or anything, just a short kiss, that’s it.”

“So why didn’t you tell me?” Kuroo looked genuinely hurt.

“It just didn’t come up, I guess…” The look on Kuroo and Yukie’s faces told him that they didn’t buy it and Bokuto sighed. “Look, I don’t really know what to make of it. We haven’t kissed again since and he hasn’t tried to bring it up or anything either, so I think we just have this unspoken agreement not to talk about it? I’m not sure.” 

“And you haven’t tried anything like that either?,” Yukie asked.

Bokuto nodded.

“So you’re telling us that he kissed you. Shy, little Akaashi took the first step and kissed you?”

A part of Bokuto wanted to protest that Akaashi wasn’t all that shy and little anymore, but instead he just nodded again, slowly realising what Yukie was trying to say. 

“And you’re not sure what to make of it, because he hasn’t brought it up since. Then again, neither did you.”

Bokuto nodded again, which was starting to feel a little stupid. 

She shot him a sharp look. “You get it now?” 

“I’m going… to talk to him about the kiss?” 

“Good boy.” Yukie smiled contently as Bokuto got out his phone. “Anyways, enough about Bokuto’s love life. Did you hear about Professor Tanaka?” 

While Yukie started telling the story about her physiology professor who had apparently been seen snogging the new substitute teacher for algebra, Bokuto sent Akaashi a short text.

To: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:02 pm  
Wanna get coffee after practice? :)

From: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:05 pm  
Sure.

From: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:06 pm  
So… is this a date?

Bokuto grinned as Akaashi reminded him of their first awkward, not really date in the cafeteria. It felt like it was ages ago that his only conversation topic with Akaashi was volleyball. 

To: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:07 pm  
Would you mind if it was? ;)

From: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:09 pm  
No.

To: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:09 pm  
:)

To: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:10 pm  
A date it is then ;) ;) ;) 

From: Akaashi (volleyball)  
1:11 pm  
Stop harassing me with your winky faces or I’m going to rethink my answer.

\---

They got their coffee after practice, though,and since the weather was nice enough that day, Bokuto suggested taking a walk instead of sitting down at one of the tables to drink their coffee. 

Their conversation came easy enough this time. Of course, it started with volleyball, with them just coming from practice, though they quickly went on to other topics, going through complaints about their classes rather quickly, only to talk about the finer details of The Mummy. Bokuto had actually watched the third part again, the day before, since he had fallen asleep when they watched it together and there were things to talk about. From there, the conversation went on over the weather, Akaashi’s plans to apply for an internship during summer, Bokuto’s adventures in bread baking when he did an internship at a bakery a few years back (“A hot dtuch oven looks exactly like a cold dutch oven, except the hot one hurts when you touch it! Always remember that, Akaashi!”) and of course the gossip with Professor Tanaka that Yukie had told them this afternoon and that Akaashi was surprisingly eager to hear and even supplying the extra information that the substitute algebra teacher wasn’t the first colleague Professor Tanaka made out with. 

“Uh, that’s juicy!” Bokuto grinned. “You gotta tell Yukie about that, she’s always interested in that kind of stuff.” 

“Ah, she already knows.” Akaashi threw his empty coffee cup into the trash. “Can’t have such vital information without sharing it with Yukie.” It surprised Bokuto that Yukie and Akaashi were actually in contact. After all, Yukie had terminated her club activities around the same time Akaashi had come to college and joined the team. He had honestly thought sunday evening at the bar had been the first time in years these two had truly reconnected. 

Apparently, Bokuto’s surprise didn’t go unnoticed, since Akaashi shot him a critical look. “What? Don’t look so surprised. You’re not the only one who can gossip.” 

“No, I just… didn’t know, you kept in contact with Yukie. She never mentioned it.” Even as he said it, he realised how stupid he sounded. Like Akaashi wasn’t allowed to stay in contact with Yukie, like she was his property. Even though, as he thought about it, the problem was probably more that Yukie, his best friend from childhood days, didn’t even mention staying in contact with Akaashi. No, her not telling him wasn't the problem, but the fact that Yukie stayed in contact with Akaashi when Bokuto didn’t.

“What? Jealous?” Akaashi’s lips twitched up a bit in an amused way, though Bokuto couldn’t really grin back like he would have liked to, because… yeah, he was jealous. Not because he felt left out, or because Yukie didn’t tell him, but because Yukie must have seen more in Akaashi than just an unapproachable, arrogant guy for quite some time now and Bokuto didn’t. Bokuto spent the last few years thinking Akaashi just wasn’t ‘his kind of person’ and never tried to get to know him better or prove himself wrong. 

Akaashi’s smile faded away as he waited for Bokuto to answer, before he spoke up again, when Bokuto didn’t. “We just always told each other about the newest school gossip, I guess. And when you guys graduated, I kept texting her about it, because she was still very interested in how that divorce drama of that drama teacher turned out.” He shrugged. “And in turn, she started telling me all about the college drama.” A mischievous glint appeared in Akaashi’s eyes as his smile returned to his face. “All the juicy details.” 

Bokuto laughed. “Ok gossip girl!” 

Akaashi winked at him. “That’s me, lonely boy.” For a moment, his expression grew somber, though the smile was back on his face before Bokuto could really process it. “Though I’d never start a blog, spilling my friends secrets.” 

Bokuto laughed. “You better not!” 

They fell back into their easy conversation after that, and even though there was still something in the back of Bokuto’s mind that was bothering him, he couldn’t quite grasp what it was. Besides, there were more important things to think about, like, for example, that kiss on sunday evening and how Bokuto was finally going to ask Akaashi about it, even though he might have an actual heart attack doing so. His heart was racing like crazy and he was starting to sweat nervously whenever he thought of bringing it up. 

It wasn’t really easy to do it. The conversation never really went in that direction. They were strolling over the campus, enjoying the last sunrays and Bokuto hadn’t even realised when he started holding Akaashi’s hand, which would have been a perfect gateway into a conversation on holding hands and kissing and them maybe being in a relationship. 

But the whole thing, that movement, easily taking the setters hand in his, feeling these calloused fingers and the tape on Akaashi’s ring finger, that he forgot to take off after practice, already felt so natural to Bokuto that he didn’t even realise that that could have been his chance until it was already too late. It was getting late though, their coffees had been empty for quite some time now and even though Akaashi didn’t say anything, Bokuto realised that he probably needed to get home to work on his latest literature assignment.

So, accepting that there probably wouldn’t be a perfect moment to gently nudge the conversation into the right direction - not that Bokuto was much of an expert on subtlety anyways - he stopped in his tracks and tugged at Akaashi’s hand to follow his lead. They were still in the calmer part of the campus, on a stony path surrounded by trees, but in the distance, Bokuto could already see the bus station, where he usually got on his bus and with every step they took further in that direction, the noises would become louder, destroying whatever peaceful atmosphere they had had on the campus. 

Akaashi furrowed his brows. “What is it?” 

There was probably a careful and well thought out way to get to the topic. But Bokuto being Bokuto, simply blurted out the one thing that was obvious. 

“You kissed me.” 

For a moment, Akaashi’s expression slipped: Surprise, anxiety, embarrassment, whatever it was he felt, it was already gone before Bokuto could place it, replaced by a cool look and a quizzically raised eyebrow. 

“Yes, I did.” 

Ok, that wasn’t really the answer Bokuto had hoped for and for a moment, he felt reminded of the very first time he had asked Akaashi to get coffee with him. Intimidated, flustered and with absolutely no idea what to say next, because it was impossible to read the setter when he was looking like this. But it wasn’t the same really, because the hand that he still had interlaced with Akaashi’s was getting a little clammy. And sure, that was probably just as much Bokuto’s fault, but on a second glance, he also saw that Akaashi’s hand, the one that wasn’t occupied with Bokuto’s, was twitching, his thumb tapping against his other fingers, like he was trying to make sure they were all still there.  
Akaashi was just as nervous as he was. 

“So, are you going to do that again?” 

There was a long pause. 

“No…”

Bokuto’s face fell. So that was that. Akaashi did regret it after all. Of course, why wouldn’t he? He was good looking, he was smart and funny and organised and a lot of other things Bokuto wasn’t but was sure, a good boyfriend should be and of course these fucking spaghetti aglio e olio he and Kuroo had made on saturady evening would leave him with a bad breath on sunday!

“No?” Bokuto very much hoped the crack of his voice hadn’t been as obvious as it had sounded to him. 

“No…”   
Bokuto would never eat garlic again. Damn Kuroo, ruining his chances with Akaashi, just like that!   
“I think it’s your turn to do that now?” 

Wait.. what? Bokuto stared at Akaashi, who seemed… flustered? Sure, he still had this poker face with one corner of his lips turned slightly upwards in that arrogant way, but his voice completely contrasted his appearance, just a little shaky, just a little hesitant. 

Slowly, Bokuto started smiling again. “So you want me,” he gestured to himself, freeing his hand from Akaashi’s. “To kiss you?” 

Akaashi swallowed audibly and nodded. 

“Okay…” Bokuto’s voice had gone hoarse. “I guess that’s fair.” 

This was okay. He knew how to kiss guys, he had done this a lot of times, he had experience with this, right? And he and Akaashi, that wasn’t so different, right? They had already kissed once and apparently, Akaashi didn’t think it had been the most horrible thing to ever happen to him, so that was good, right? So why the fuck was he still so nervous? 

Tentatively, Bokuto got closer to Akaashi, put his left hand on Akaashi's arm and lifted his right arm to cup Akaahi’s cheek. He paused for a moment, just taking it in. These dark blue eyes that seemed to see right through any bulshit, red cheeks from the early evening chill, the tiny scar and these plum, chapped lips right underneath. These lips…

Bokuto leaned in and the second his lips met Akaashi, everything else seemed to disappear. Not only the noises from campus, the birds and the cars, but also every single worry he had regarding Akaashi, the nervousness, the racing heart, it all moved into distance, wasn’t important anymore. The only thing that mattered was the warm feeling of Akaashi’s lips on his, returning the pressure, slowly starting to move. 

It was easy, so easy, to kiss Akaashi. They worked with each other right away, their lips moving against each other in synchronicity as Akaashi moved his hands on Bokuto’s back and one slightly tickled his neck. Bokuto lightly sucked Akaashi’s lower lip, which earned him a content hum, before he pulled away a little, leaving only a few centimeters between them. 

“So…” It took Bokuto a few seconds to collect his thoughts and actually figure out what he was planning on saying. This time, he made sure to articulate his question more carefully. “Are we going to do this again?” 

Akaashi chuckled quietly, his warm breath on Bokuto’s lips. “I won’t say no to that.”

Bokuto kissed him again. Short and sweet and slightly bitter, because of the black coffee Akaashi had drunk earlier. 

It only occured to Bokuto later that evening, when he was already laying in bed, that he still didn’t know if these kisses meant he and Akaashi were in a relationship. All official and stuff. Before he could start overthinking it, he already had his phone in his hand to call Akaashi. 

“Hello?” 

“Hi, it’s me, Bokuto.” Bokuto answered. 

“I kinda figured.” Somehow he could hear Akaashi’s teasing smile through the phone. “You know, with things like a caller ID having been invented like twenty years ago. And because nobody else would suddenly call me at 11 pm when I was just about to go to sleep.” 

“Sorry…” 

“I don’t mind, though…” Bokuto heard some shuffling from the other side of the line and assumed Akaashi had gotten comfortable in his bed. “So why are you calling me? Is Kuroo busy or what?”

“Nah, I mean, yes,” Bokuto groaned. “He’s sleeping over at Kenma’s again. Never thought I’d miss fighting for bathroom time.” 

Akaashi chuckled. 

“Don’t laugh! I’m lonely! This is sad!” 

“Well, I’d be sorry for you, if you hadn’t just called me as a replacement for Kuroo.” 

Bokuto spluttered. “That’s not, I’m…” 

“Relax…”

For a second, they were both quiet and Bokuto listened to Akaashi’s breathing over the phone. 

“Akaashi?”

“Yes?” His voice was quieter a lot calmer than before. 

“I was kinda wondering, because, well, we kissed and I wanted to ask you… if you wanted to be my boyfriend?” 

A chuckle. “Over the phone. Ever the romantic.” 

“I know, right” Bokuto grinned. “Might propose to you via text one day.” 

They were quiet again for a moment.

“Sooo, you didn’t really answer?” 

“Yes.” 

“Yes?” 

Another chuckle. He could fall in love with Akaashi for that chuckle alone, Bokuto realised. “Yes, I wanna be your boyfriend.” 

Bokuto let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding. 

“Okay, boyfriend.” He smiled.

“Though, for the record,” Akaashi’s tone was serious. “I will always remind you, that you asked me the fucking question over the phone!” 

“I think I can live with that,” Bokuto answered, way too giddy to take Akaashi’s exasperation seriously. 

Akaashi didn’t answer, again, all Bokuto could hear were his steady breaths. When he finally spoke up again, his voice was merely a whisper. “I should probably go to sleep.”

“Yeah, me too,” Bokuto answered. “Goodnight Akaashi.” 

The chuckle again, only faintly this time. “Goodnight Bokuto.”

Neither of them hung up.

And yes, maybe Bokuto would have liked to fall asleep right next to Akaashi, like the week before on the couch. But knowing Akaashi was there, when his soft snores came through Bokuto’s speaker a few minutes later, wasn’t too bad either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soo long time no see. I'd love to have a valid excuse, but honestly...nope. I started this story on a whim bc it just seemed like a fun trope and sometime in August I just realised... nope, not really and started to hate Bokuto and his friends just a little, bc how the fuck is Akaashi going to get over this? Wellp, I guess I've got something figured out and until then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter of fluff as well as the ones to come since I'm a coward and will put off writing the ansty part as long as I can.  
> A huge thank you goes out to every person that took the time to comment on this fic. These comments mean so much to me and are so motivating. One day, I will answer all of them individually and thoughtfully, but honestly, I'm always way too excited when I read them and I don't think a happy keysmash does all of you justice.  
> As for a new update schedule: There is none. But updates will come more often from now on, if not, you are hereby allowed to kick me in the butt for procrastinating. Cheers!

**Author's Note:**

> Big thank you to my beta reader @justaweaboonugget from tumblr!


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